


Mark, Ethan, and a Couple of Intergalactic Beings

by Flame0515



Category: Unus Annus - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Arguing, Banter, Death, Demons, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, I am making this up as I go, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light-Hearted, M/M, Men Crying, Mild panic, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Out of Character, Panic Attacks, Semi Established Relationship, its not that bad! I promise, its not that graphic but whatever, slight description of corpses/death, sort of dark but not really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:20:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24733804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flame0515/pseuds/Flame0515
Summary: (Previously named 'Who or What is Unus and Annus?')Annus interrupted. “ Basically there's about to be an apocalypse. ” Unus shot him a look.“What!?” Ethan shouted. “An apocalypse? What the fuck- why!?”“ Apparently it had been on Satan’s agenda for a while but now that we’re here he wants to unleash it now and have it be bigger than ever. ” Annus explained.“You have got to be shitting me..”ORMark and Ethan get tangled up in the lives of Unus and Annus, two intergalactic beings. Crossing paths (or in this case lives) with the pair comes with a consequence- Saving all of humanity from the wrath of Satan and his army of demons.
Relationships: Mark Fischbach/Ethan Nestor, Unus & Annus, Unus/Annus
Comments: 57
Kudos: 155





	1. The Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay hear me out. Remember when Mark and Ethan were looking at the scary edits in the sub reddit? Remember that really cool cult one? It's a bit like that. I was listening to The Edge Of Sleep when I started this and that vibe stayed with me for all of five minutes. Basically I wanted to create Unus and Annus. I wanted to make them seem like these entities that we can't comprehend. It gets a little bit dark but it very quickly becomes light-hearted again. Also I refer to Unus and Annus as males for no reason in particular but I'll change it if you think it'd be better. I'll shut up, please enjoy.

On any ordinary day, around noon, there was a bright flash of light followed by what could only be described as total and complete darkness. This strange phenomenon existed for only a second before everything went back to normal, as if nothing had happened at all. It seemed as though no one had any recollection of this event except for two individuals. 

Scared out of his mind and trying not to hyperventilate, Ethan clinged to Spencer and scrambled for his phone. He called the first person that came to mind- Mark. He picked up on the first ring.

“Ethan? Oh thank god- are you okay?” Mark spoke before Ethan could say anything and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Yeah- yeah yeah yeah yeah are- are you? Did you see that?” Ethan stumbled over his words, relieved to hear Mark’s voice.

“I-I’m fine. The light right? And the- then the darkness?”

Ethan hummed a shaky response. “What was that?”

“I.. I don’t know.” 

They sat dumbfounded for a moment, just listening to each other's panicked breathing before Mark broke the silence. “Can I come over-”

“I’ll come to you.” Ethan could not stand being alone right now and it didn’t seem like Mark could either.

Once Ethan arrived at Mark’s house the pair searched for any news coverage on the happening, they asked everyone they knew until they sounded insane and found- nothing. Nobody remembered. Nobody saw it. Nobody had a clue what they were talking about.

But Mark and Ethan remembered. The fact that there were two of them was the only thing that stopped them from possibly going crazy. This event sparked a thought in their minds. Death could come for them at any moment. Life was incredibly unpredictable and it was important to live life to the fullest. And thus, the youtube channel Unus Annus was born. 

The day the unexplainable thing happened a group of cultists were attempting a summoning. Perhaps they wanted Demons or something of the supernatural sort. The answer was unclear. But one thing was for sure- they had succeeded. The cultists had summoned entities of some sort. They came from the sky as if they were aliens but they were far beyond that. Formless creatures with powers with malicious intent.

The cultist captured them in hour glasses, much to their dismay. The hour glasses turned black and white respectively with hypnotic spiral on top of it. The entities spoke to them through this, demanded things, put them in a trance. These beings demanded bodies. A vessel to carry them and to allow them to channel their full strength. The cultists complied.

Mark and Ethan were captured and brought to the entities. Ethan sobbed and struggled, Mark tried to use brute force only to slowly become more erratic. Once restrained and on either side of the table, with the hourglasses placed above their heads, it began. After a meticulous and painful process the entities left the hourglasses and moved into the bodies. Mark's eyes went white, Ethan's black, and all struggle ceased.

A black and white fog rolled through the room and when it cleared Mark and Ethan- or rather the entities stood in pristine white and black suits. Their hands were clasped and there was a smile on their faces. The cultists stood Still.

“Thank you for the help with all this.” Ethan announced.

“A shame that these boys had to suffer but all good things require sacrifice.” Mark sounded almost remorseful. Almost. His face was soon full of treachery. 

Ethan nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I’m sure you’ll all understand why we must do this.”

The cultists were confused and slightly scared. Then the final grains of sand fell in the forgotten hourglasses. 

“It’s time.” Mark looked grim as he spoke. Ethan wore a sadistic smile, 

“Unus Annus.” They spoke as one.

The scene was gruesome. A bloodbath with no survivors. When it was over and all the cultists were very dead Annus turned to Unus. Unus was bloody and disheveled whereas Annus was only slightly unkempt. 

“Really?” Annus sighed at the sight.

“What?” Unus licked his lips. “Gotta get your hands dirty sometimes.” He said with a shrug and a glint in his eye. 

Annus grumbled knowing he was fighting a losing battle. “You’re a dumbass.” He said smoothing out his suit. 

“Aw, you know you love me.” Unus threw an arm over Annus’ shoulder.

Annus pushed Unus’ arm off and scoffed “You’re surprisingly confident in that body.”

Unus smiled “Yeah, this one feels right. What, you don’t like being Mr. Muscles?” 

Annus rolled his eyes “Ha ha. No, I’m big and stronk” He flexed his newly acquired muscles for emphasis “Just thought you’d be upset in your clearly inferior body.” 

“Oh you’d be surprised at what this one can do.” 

Annus eyed him suspiciously “We’ve been in these bodies for less than ten minutes the fuck did you do?” 

“Guess you were too busy being all boring and generic to see my sick moves.” Unus stretched his arms out “While you were being predictable and using your powers I was really getting into the nitty gritty of the fight. I was all over this room- this dude was a gymnast.” He had a smug look on his face.

Annus scanned the room of corpses as Unus talked. They were pretty mutilated. In a way some simple magic couldn’t do. Unus always had a thirst for blood, and well.. So did Annus if he was being honest. Unus was just far more violent about it. Annus grinned. “It suits you. Although, when you get tired because you used too much energy on a bunch of dumbasses again- I’m not carrying you.”

“That was once!”

“It so was not. At least three times!” 

“Bullshit!” 

They glared at each other before devolving into laughter. Annus loved this. Fighting was always fun, but doing it with Unus? It was even better. Annus didn’t care how many times he would have to care for Unus after a battle, he would do it forever if he got to be this happy every time, if he got to see Unus this happy every time. They were a dynamic duo.

After they settled down Unus spoke up, an unreadable look on his face. “Who do you think they were?”

Annus frowned. Unus always did this. No matter what universe, what planet, what being they took over- Unus always got emotional about it. Unus was confusing. One minute he would be ripping people's throats out and the next he would be wondering about the lives the two of them took. 

He wasn’t feeling guilty. At least not to whoever summoned them there. Cultists were dealing with things they knew nothing about. It was their downfall and killing them was like removing a pest from a garden. No, Unus felt guilty about whose body they were controlling. The men they possessed this time around were innocent. They were all always innocent people with lives and loved ones and they were stripped away from that only to die a horrible death at the hands of something beyond their minds comprehension. 

And although there was no other way to go about it and they had been doing it for eons Annus couldn’t blame Unus for the guilt. That was just how Unus was. “Well we’re gonna go find out right?” Annus offered, there wasn’t much else he could say.

“Yeah.” Unus wore a classic fake smile. It was clearly bothering him.

“Hey, c’mon now.” Annus said reaching for Unus’ hand and giving it a squeeze. “It’s gonna be okay. It’s like a mystery, we’ll solve the case!” Annus added some dramatic flair as he let go of Unus’ hand.

Unus giggled. Mission make Unus feel better was a success. “You ready to get out of here?”

“Sure thing. Let’s fuck shit up!” Unus fist pumped. 

“You’re a fool.”

“Maybe, but so are you! We’re two halves of a whole idiot.” Unus responded in a sing-songy voice.

That got a chuckle out of Annus. “That we are.” He offered Unus his hand “M’lady?”

Unus took it gracefully “My, what a gentleman!” 

“It’s what I do baby!” Annus pulled a dumb voice.

The pair left the building and crime scene hand in hand, giggling like a pair of school girls. Something gnawed at the back of Annus’ mind, a thought he couldn’t quite place. Something about these vessels left an uneasy feeling in Annus’ gut, as if the original hosts hadn’t quite gone away. But he pushed the feeling away knowing it was far-fetched, choosing to instead focus on his foolish partner in crime beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what are your thoughts? I did a LOT of character building around these characters in a google doc and I'm really proud of what I came up with for how Unus and Annus work and their personalities, their abilities, etc. They are very emotion based in my mind. Anywho If you'd like to see that please let me know. Comment are much appreciated! I thrive on feedback lol Thanks for reading!!


	2. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unus and Annus head home to try and figure out who's lives they were living. Something feels just slightly off.

Like usual, Unus and Annus were pulled towards a certain location. It was just something that happened when they took a new vessel, like a gut feeling. They must have looked suspicious, two men dressed in suits and covered in blood wandering through the darkness was a concerning sight. Lucky for them there was no one out this late and they blended into the darkness pretty well so Annus wasn’t too worried about that. What he was worried about was the idiot next to him. Once again Unus had used too much energy on an easy battle. He was exhausted but was clearly trying to hide it.

“You’re tired.” Annus said matter-of-factly.

“Nope.” 

A moment passed before Annus tried again. “If you just admit I was right about you wasting your energy I’ll carry you.”

“Nuh uh”

Annus sighed. Again a lost cause. Unus tended to be stubborn like this. Annus wasn’t afraid to admit he was also pretty stubborn but Unus was stubborn about things that harm him. Annus hated watching Unus deny himself the things he needed, it was as if he needed to prove something to himself. Soon enough Annus could tell Unus was close to passing out when the hand he was still holding fell limp and Unus could barely hold his eyes open. 

“All right idot” Annus stopped walking

“What?” Unus rubbed his eye sleepily.

“You’re done.”

“Huh? No I’m fine.” Unus tried to insist but didn’t put up much of a struggle when Annus picked him. Holding him bridal style, Annus continued walking. “Take a nap.” It wasn’t a demand or a request, just some simple words. 

Unus mumbled a thanks and curled into Annus’ before quickly drifting off to sleep. Annus tried to ignore the warm feeling in his chest and redness in his face as he carried Unus to wherever it was they were going.

The door to the house was unlocked when they got there. When Annus opened the door he was greeted by two dogs that happily wiggled upon their entry. Annus set Unus down on the couch and locked the door behind him. First things first.. dogs apparently. Annus crouched down to their level to get a good look at them. They didn’t seem bothered by the fact that Annus was not their owner and neither was Unus- which was concerning. In other situations where their vessels had pets the pests usually hated them and were well aware of the situation. That odd feeling came back to Annus but he brushed it off once more, choosing to instead focus on the cuddly creatures.

Both dogs were wearing colors with name tags luckily enough. The smaller of the two read ‘Spencer’ and on the back ‘If lost return to Ethan Nestor’ with a phone number. The other read ‘Chica’ and ‘Belongs to Mark Fishbach’ also accompanied by a number. Which one of them was Mark or Ethan would require some further explanation but for now Annus was content with petting Spencer and Chica. 

“Aw you guys are pretty cute huh? Sweet little babies!” Annus used baby talk while petting them. Soon enough though he decided some looking around was required. 

While exploring the house Annus found that ‘Mark and Ethan’ had been filming something upon their kidnapping. The kitchen was a mess and the camera had still been recording. Annus quickly turned it off and set it aside. He also found a recording room and put two and two together. He scoffed to himself “Youtubers.” Finally he located two cell phones. He decided to look through the one with a red case first.

The lock screen had been a picture of Chica, a rather cute one at that. He slid the phone to unlock it and was greeted with a rather nice, if not dorky picture of the man Unus was currently in control of. Ah, so this must be Mark’s phone. So Annus must be Mark. And Unus was Ethan. There was also a surplus of ignored messages in Mark’s inbox. It seemed like the man had frequently chosen to ignore his notifications. Annus spent some time browsing the man’s camera roll and apps. He was sure of two things- Mark was a youtuber and he and Ethan had been in a relationship. That was the only explanation for all of the pictures of the other man Mark had saved in his phone. 

Soon enough he moved onto the other phone that must have belonged to Ethan. Much like Mark’s phone his lock screen was a picture of Spencer who must have belonged to him and his home screen was a picture of Mark laughing. He didn’t have nearly as much missed messages as Mark but once again his camera roll had tons of pictures of said man. Annus eventually came to the conclusion that Ethan had also been a youtuber. He also discovered that Ethan did not live here. Apparently he lived in an apartment somewhere else. That was odd considering how much stuff around here seemed to belong to Ethan. And how both Unus and Annus had been drawn to this location. 

Annus took the time to mull over the past few hours. It was just like their arrival on any other planets, arrive, demand a vessel, enter the vessel, kill all witnesses. He and Unus still shared their dumb banter and Unus still got tired. The weird thing was that this time around, it felt different. Annus felt connected to this Mark character and there was still that uneasy feeling in the back of his mind. Before he had anytime to overthink things he heard Unus stir in the living room.

Unus was still asleep but he seemed to be dreaming. He was moving and twitching, his face was scrunched into a surely upset emotion. This was not a pleasant dream. Annus gently shook him awake. “Unus. Hey Unus wake up.” Unus shot upwards, a panicked look on his face as he searched the room for something in a frantic state.

“Woah, hey what’s wrong?”

Unus’ eyes landed on Annus and he swallowed. “They’re not gone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to the two people that commented on the first chapter lol I really thrive on comments and they drove me to write a chapter 2  
> Also! You can find me here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/flame0515 I don't really post anything but if you wanna talk to me my inbox is wide open. I also wouldn't be opposed to writing requests. Comments are much appreciated! Thanks for reading :)


	3. Facing The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unus is scared, Annus is worried and it's time to confront a certain somebody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be honest with you Annus monologues a LOT in this one.  
> Also thank you all SO SO SO much for your comments, I woke up this morning to all of the love and It honestly made me feel so much better than I have been. I've been in a slump recently and haven't had much creativity so seeing the support on my first fic coming out of it has been amazing.

“What- what do you mean they’re not gone? Who’s they?” Annus stumbled over his words, struggling to figure out what Unus was talking about.

“Those guys, the men whose bodies we took, they- they’re not dead.”

Annus rolled his eyes. Of course. Unus had an active imagination so it wasn't surprising that he was saying this. Annus decided to humor him. “Really? And how do you know that?”

“Oh don’t do that condescending shit! I need you to believe me! I dreamt of this guy right? He looked like this body. He spoke to me, he..he said that his name was Ethan and that he was scared and in pain and didn’t know what was going on. He asked about someone named Mark.”

Annus froze at that. Ethan and Mark.. There was no way for Unus to know those names yet. “That’s not possible....” 

“There were these shackles that chained him to the ground.” Unus continued. “He was crying, Annus. He was in pain. I’ve never felt more guilty. How bad do you think it is in there? He’s trapped in his own mind I-” Unus began working himself up again. Usually Annus would have helped calm him but he had walked off and begun to pace.

“Did you look around this place for any clues?” Unus asked once he settled down a bit.

Annus glanced up at Unus before continuing to pace. “Mark and Ethan were their names.” Then Spencer and Chica wandered over, happy to greet Unus and comfort him. “These were their dogs.” Annus added, chewing on his thumb- it was a nervous habit he had picked up at some point. He wasn’t normally nervous but occasionally Unus would find him with his thumbs chewed to shit- it was usually before he had an emotional outburst, Annus knew that- he just hated the concern on Unus’ face when he found him like that. That’s why he kept up such a facade. He hated worrying Unus. But that was the least of his troubles now.

Unus gave a sad smile to the dogs as he pet them. There was a beat of silence before Unus spoke again. “Do you.. Do you think Mark is still alive?” 

Annus sighed. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

Annus opened his eyes only to be greeted with a dark void. Was this a dream world? Or maybe just his mind? He was in his true form. White fog that was orb-like and moved with grace. Annus didn’t much like his true form. He couldn’t do a whole lot. Plus whenever he was in his true form it usually meant he had taken so much damage that he was forced out of whatever vessel was carrying him. Not fun times. 

Annus looked around before he saw a figure in the distance. The figure was yelling but he couldn’t hear just what. He drifted towards it. 

“Let me out of here! You assholes! Let me out! Please!” The yelling slowly turned to weak crying as Annus approached. It was a man, he was on his knees and chained to the ground. His head was hanging in defeat and Annus watched as tear drops hit the ground, slow at first and then rapidly. How long had he been screaming? Is there any way to tell the passage of time in here?

The man seemed to sense him and looked up. It was then Annus realized it was Mark. Mark grit his teeth as tears streamed from his eyes. “What the  _ fuck _ .” He whispered upon seeing fog in front of him.

“ **Hello.** ” Annus spoke but it came out as an ominous voice that seemed to surround them. Afterall, he didn’t really have a mouth.. Or face. Mark did nothing but stare so Annus continued. “ **I’m Annus. You should not be alive right now.** ” 

Mark didn’t startle, he just grew angrier. “Did  _ you  _ do this to me? Let me out.” He nearly growled. Annus ignored him.

“ **Usually when Unus and I take on a new vessel the original occupant dies. But you haven’t, which is peculiar. Are you in pain?** ”

“What? Unus and Annus? This is a fucking fever dream.” Suddenly Mark grunted as if he was taking damage. It seemed he was.

Annus hummed. “ **I really don’t know why you and Ethan didn’t die.** ” He mused. “ **It would have saved you all this pain.”**

Mark froze. “What? Where is Ethan? Is he okay? What did you do to him!?”

“ **Nothing intentionally. He’s trapped in a place like this too. Only Unus is the one that can see him not me.** ”

Mark winced. “What  _ are  _ you?”

“ **I guess I should explain, although I doubt you’ll be able to comprehend it. I’ll dumb it down. I am Annus, a being from beyond your world. I, alongside Unus, visit different planets and-.** ” Annus paused, trying to find the correct wording. **“We weed out the ‘bad guys’ as I imagine you would call them. We’ve been doing this since the beginning of time and not once have we run into an issue like this.** ”

Mark stared at him. “What did I ever do? Why am I here? What happened?”

“ **You see, Unus and I require vessels. Someone we can use to help us with our work. These vessels allow us to harness our powers in a better way. Without them there isn’t much we can do. So we arrive on a planet and.. Trick someone, for lack of better term, into finding us a suitable being such as you and your beloved Ethan. Then we kill them** ”

Mark was taken aback by this “What so your plan was to kill me and Ethan and then.. More innocent people?!”

Anuus growled at the man’s incompetence. “ **We have no other option! A tarnished vessel does not work. The host usually dies when we enter- we’ve been over this! The others are not so innocent. We’ve tried to go any other way in finding a vessel but nothing ever works. I’m sorry.** ” Annus apologized because he felt it was deserved. These men should be long dead but they weren’t and that had caused them far more pain than dying in the first place ever would have. Mark and Ethan were innocent pawns in the whole scheme.

Mark lowered his head and sighed before looking up again. “So what. The fuck. Do you want?” 

“ **I’m here because I wanted to see if what Unus said was true. And it was. We are trying to find a way to fix this, trust me. Hang in there and we’ll figure something out.** ” 

“How can I trust you?”

“ **Do you have much else of a choice?** ”

Annus woke with a start. “Annus! Are you okay?” Unus shouted, latching onto Annus’ arm. Annus gave a shaky nod.

“What did you see?”

“Mark.” Annus tried to steady himself, gripping the couch for dear life. “He was chained to the ground and crying. He was in pain.”

Unus grimaced, that had been how he saw Ethan. “Did you talk to him?”

“Yeah. I tried to explain things to him but I don’t think he believed me. I told him we would find a way to save him.”

Unus nodded. “Do you think we can?”

Annus locked eyes with him. “We’re gonna try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy! This was a lot of explaining things through dialogue and I really hope that wasn't too annoying. I hinted at some other stuff and blah blah blah I just hope I didn't over explain Unus and Annus since the whole point is that they're very mysterious. There's a lot that you guys still don't know about them and I'm eager to show that to you but one step at a time!  
> I kinda wrote myself into a corner with this one but I've been so excited and motivated by y'all that I am more than willing to figure it out in a couple minutes here. Thank you for reading!!


	4. Vulnerability

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annus doesn't know where to begin. Unus is always there to help. Maybe they can bring the boys back after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UNUS ANNUS IS BACK BABY AND OH DID THEY COME BACK SWINGING- Pee Sauna really fucked me up lol  
> Anyways, I really like how this came out but am a bit nervous about posting it :/  
> Also I project really hard in the beginning lmao

Annus was sitting at the dining room table, trying to come up with something- anything! How the fuck were they supposed to save these guys without making things worse for themselves? They needed these vessels and it was clear that they didn’t wanna give them up anytime soon. Annus huffed, blowing a stray piece of hair out of his face. Mark and Ethan are trapped, this much they know. The humans are literally shackled in place. Maybe that was Unus and Annus’ doing? He shook his head as if to clear his mind. That wasn’t helpful. Why had they not died?! Unus and Annus had been doing this with practiced ease forever! Nothing like this had ever happened before so what was different now? Maybe there was some cosmic reason behind all this, like fate maybe? Ugh no that's dumb. Logic. There’s gotta be something logical about this! Maybe it was something the cultists had done..? That was sort of logical. 

Okay nevermind, fuck logic. Nothing about any of this was logical. Unus and Annus weren’t even logical- their existence alone made no sense! They’d figure out the reasoning later. What's important now is that they find a way to save these guys. Wait.. why were they even saving these guys? They were just humans! One of the weaker beings out there. What had made them want to save Mark and Ethan so badly in the first place? The fact that they lived? Partially. If Annus was being honest it was more because it felt right. Or at least that's what he thought. He and Unus were evil weren’t they? Sure these humans were innocent but the pairs moral compasses were fucking roulette wheels- why not let them die?

The look of confusion and frustration must have been evident on Annus’ face because when Unus returned from exploring the house for himself he immediately took a seat next to Annus and pulled his hands away from his face, holding them gently instead. Annus internally cursed. He’d been chewing on his thumbs again. He’d been freaking out and it worried Unus if not not scared him. He’d-

“Hey.” Unus said gently to get Annus’ attention again. “Get out of your head. It’s okay.” Annus must have looked like a scared animal having to be coaxed into calmness. He realized he had been hyperventilating. Son of a bitch. What a shitty thing to do. And for Unus to have to calm him down? How humiliating.

“It’s okay to get upset Annus.” Oh. Was Annus talking aloud? If he was Unus ignored him that time. “You don’t have to put up a front all the time. You’re always there for me so why shouldn’t I be there for you?” Unus looked assured. Emotions were his department after all. 

“I’m scared.” Annus whispered. His voice was trembling.

“So am I.” Unus reached up to wipe a stray tear from Annus’ face- was he crying? “But we’ll be okay. We always are.” Annus nodded.

“Can I see your crystal?”

Huh? Oh right! Annus reached for the crystal that was hanging from around his neck. It was clear on great days but right now it was a deep blue. Unus had gifted Annus this crystal a long long time ago. It meant alot. It still does. It warns Annus of when he might have an.. Outburst, for lack of a better term. Annus has this nasty habit of picking up on other’s emotions and bottling up his own. He also has this super cool ability (not) where he takes others anguish away. If he doesn’t deal with these emotions they have a tendency of blowing up on him. The aftermath is not pretty. The crystal is very helpful.. When he pays attention to it that is.

Unus held the crystal and stared at it briefly before dropping it back to Annus’ chest. He looked back up to Annus. “C’mon, let's go see what’s on tv.” Unus offered with a smile. Annus was too drained to do anything other than allow Unus to guide him back to the couch.

They sat down and Annus involuntarily snuggled in. Unus knew him too well. He could see past all his walls and right into his insecurities and Annus couldn’t bring himself to mind. He wanted to let Unus in, he just didn’t know how. Unus knew everything there was to know about Annus and Annus wouldn’t have it any other way.

They watched some fucking show on tv, Annus didn’t care enough to learn it’s name, but between that and the cuddling he was provided enough of a distraction that the color of his crystal slowly started to lose it’s bluish hue.

When Annus fell asleep he woke up in the same black void as before. Once again he drifted towards Mark who looked to have given up at this point. There was no yelling, no struggling, he looked defeated. 

“Any updates?” Mark rasped out.

“ **I- No.** ” Annus muttered.

“Then why are you here?”

“ **I need sleep too. Plus organic material thrives on it, so.** ” If he had shoulders he would have shrugged but Mark seemed to get the gist.

Mark laughed dryly. “Well I hope you figure it out.”

“ **Me too.** ”

Suddenly the darkness faded away and Annus was greeted with a series of images he couldn’t quite figure out. They were rampant and moved too fast for him to make anything of them. 

“-nus! Annus!”

He was pulled back to consciousness. 

“Annus! Hey man wake up! I think I have an idea.” Unus finished shaking him awake before getting up and walking towards the kitchen.

“An idea? ‘Bout what?” Annus mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked around, the pair must have fallen asleep on the couch.

“How to get Mark and Ethan back- duh!” 

“Right, right.. You’re way too awake right now.” He yawned, “Do they have any coff..ee?” Annus was cut off by a mug being set in front of him.

“Bada bing bada boom! I knew you would want some so I made it before you woke up! Also I fed the dogs.”

Annus smiled “Thanks.” He took a drink of the coffee. He may be an interdimensional, planet hopping, kind of evil entity but that didn’t mean he couldn’t like coffee. “So what’s your idea?”

“Well what if we’re what's keeping them trapped? If we left their bodies- only briefly!” He added upon seeing Annus’ look of concern. “Maybe they could regain control of it.”

Annus set down his mug. There was no way in hell this was going to happen. “Uh newsflash Unus, that's just a sure fire way to lose our vessels!”

“Not if only one of us does it at a time! That way whoever still has control over their vessel can be sure the other gets back into theirs- it’s foolproof!”

Annus scoffed “It is so not foolproof.”

“Well do you have a better idea?”

“I guess not..”

“Exactly! Which is why we’re doing my thing.” Unus puffed out his chest proudly.

Annus couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re ridiculous but alright. Who do you think we should try and bring back first?”

“Well your guy sounds like an asshole- I feel like he would try to kill me immediately.” Annus nodded in agreement, that sounded about right. “I think Ethan would be a much safer bet.”

“You could kill Mark in seconds.”

“I could but I don’t want to.”

“That’s surprising. You’re usually waiting for the chance to kill someone.”

Unus giggled “Yeah but not this guy! We need him to figure out why he didn’t die.”

Annus nodded. “Wait. So you’re willing to just leave your body on the off chance this’ll work?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Do you have any idea how vulnerable that would make you?” Annus questioned.

“Yeah but I’ve thought it through! More or less.. Look, I trust you to help me get back to the body just in case this goes wrong.” 

“That’s a lot of pressure to put on a guy.”

Unus cracked a sly smile "You've been worse."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh buddy boy do I love hurt/comfort!  
> I'm really struggling with this next chapter, I'm not liking how it's coming along and I feel like it's too confusing. I'll be working on it tonight to try and come up with something coherent and try to make it presentable by tomorrow lol  
> Also! What did y'all think of Annus' little, emotion ability thing? I'll go more in depth about that later- as well as Unus' fun ability but first things first let's get our boys back!  
> Thanks for reading! Feedback is appreciated.


	5. Miscommunication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unus and Annus get in a fight and we see the return of everyone's favorite dumbasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH BOY  
> Sorry there was no update yesterday, I had a bad mental health day and couldn't do anything creative wise. BUT I'M BACK  
> I mentioned that I was struggling with this chapter before. I had it written almost to completion but hated it and scrapped it completely and came up with this.  
> I hope you enjoy!

“You’ve been worse.” The conversation had ended there with Unus quieting so Annus could enjoy his coffee in peace. But silence had been the last thing Annus wanted at the moment. Silence gave his thoughts a chance to speak, to tell him every possible way this plan could go to shit. It was barely even a plan! Annus sighed into his mug with a contemplative look on his face.

“What’s bothering you Bubba?” Unus asked, using a dumb nickname that seemed to always cheer Annus up. Not this time though. 

“How are you so.. fine with all this?”

Unus tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean how are you so okay? In all our years of doing this shit we’ve never experienced something like this before, anything could happen and you’re just so- nonchalant about it all. I don’t understand..” Annus’ words drifted off and he stared blankly at the black tv screen.

“It’s a learning experience Annus, of course it’s scary.” Unus started. “I’m just as scared now as I was the first time we showed up on a planet. It’s scary yeah, but it’s exciting too. You can’t be scared of the unknown, you’ll never live.” Annus supposed he was right about that.

“You were scared?”

Unus made a noise of disbelief. “Uh, yeah! It was fucking terrifying dude. But if I let that fear stop me we wouldn’t be where we are today.” He smiled and put a hand on Annus’ shoulder. “We’re gonna be okay.” Annus just looked at him. Was where they were today even good? Everything was confusing all of the time. Would they have been better off just drifting in the cosmos for ever?

“Alright. I’ll wash up your mug and we’ll get this show on the road.” Unus took the now empty mug from Annus and disappeared into the kitchen. 

Annus ran a hand through his hair. He was still anxious about this. He couldn’t just brush it off! It’s scary. Tentatively he got up and followed Unus, coming to stand a few feet away from where Unus was rinsing a couple of dishes off. Had those been there? Was he doing the dishes of two men who should be long dead?

Annus bit his lip and fidgeted with his hands. “Are you sure about this?”

“About what?” Unus asked with a hum.

“About your plan.” 

“Worth a shot isn’t it? What’s the worst that could happen?” He shrugged the question off as if it were nothing.

“What's the worst that could happen?” Annus found himself muttering angrily. “So much could go wrong Unus! We don’t know what we’re dealing with here! Literally anything is possible! What if you die or something?!”

Unus scoffed “I can’t die.”

“We don’t know that!”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure we do. We’ve both taken enough hard hits to know we’re pretty much indestructible.”

“Maybe!” Annus insisted “But this isn’t something we know anything about. What if we’ve met our match or some shit?”

Unus turned to face him. “You’re overreacting.”

“I’m overreacting?! If anything you’re under reacting!”

Unus smirked before glancing down to the crystal that Annus had yet to tuck into his shirt and frowning. “Hey..”

Annus followed his line of site and put two and two together. He grabbed the crystal and put it back under his shirt. “Oh don’t do that shit! Don’t fuckin’ baby me! You always do this!” 

Unus’ face turned into a scowl. “I always do this? You don’t get to talk when you do this shit whenever there’s any sign of danger!” He began to raise his voice.

“What do you mean?”

“I  _ mean _ , you always think I can’t handle myself! I’m just as fucking poweful as you  _ and  _ I have stable emotions!”

Annus growled. “Low blow asshole. Plus it doesn’t even apply! You think you have stable emotions? They change at the flip of a switch! One second you’re giggling the next you’re sobbing- tell me how that’s stable!”

“At least my emotions don’t manifest themselves into physical and harmful things!”

“ _ Bullshit! _ ” Annus yelled “Your emotions do the same shit as mine!”

“Yeah? Well at least I never hurt you with mine!”

Annus froze dead in his tracks, whatever insult he had ready next had lost its bite. “What?”

“Shit- just forget I said anything.” Unus said, turning away from Annus.

“Unus.. Unus did I  _ hurt _ you?” No response. He approached Unus slowly. “Please, I need to know.”

“Maybe!” He threw his hands in the air. “Once or twice..” He mumbled.

Annus sucked in a breath. “When?”

Unus turned to face him, gripping his own arm. “I.. I don’t know”

“What do you mean you don’t know-”

“I don’t know!” Unus snapped, causing Annus to recoil. “I don’t wanna talk about this right now..”

“Unus..!” Annus went to grab him but he dodged.

“Leave me alone.” Unus muttered before taking off out of the room and upstairs, the dishes completely forgotten.

Annus stood there in disbelief before putting his head in his hands. “ _ Fuck. _ ”

Unus bounded up the stairs and locked himself in a bedroom. He was so goddamn  _ angry _ . He was fucking mad. He couldn’t let that feeling consume him. Now definitely wasn’t the time to go all ‘ _ grr angry man, fire, fuck you! _ ’ especially over something so dumb. Rationally, he knew he should just go talk to Annus- the dude was probably having a panic attack down there. But Unus couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had the right to be upset! I- right? Maybe not.. Annus just cared! He’d worry himself to death if he could. But Annus had hurt him - more than once. Unus was allowed to be mad at that. Although, Annus had no control over it, he never meant to hurt Unus; he loved Unus! Wait.. love? We’re they capable of love? Unus thinks he loves Annus but does he even know what love is? Unus shook his head, that was a topic for later.

Maybe Annus had a right to be concerned.. Unus wasn’t exactly known for his brilliant ideas. Did Annus think poorly of Unus? Was he talking down to Unus? No.. no he was just expressing his concern! But by yelling? Unus sighed, this internal battle was exhausting. His argument with Annus had tired him out. He closed his eyes. And in trying to silence his thoughts, he fell asleep.

  
  


“Unus?” Ethan whispered, his voice barely there.

“ **Hey..** ” Unus attempted a whisper. It didn’t quite work considering his voice was like a goddamn surround sound speaker. “ **How are you feeling?** ”

“Not great.. Don’t know how much more of this I’ll survive. Do you have a plan yet?”

Plan..? Oh! That’s what he and Annus had been arguing over- it seemed like a solid plan to Unus. It wasn’t like they had much else of a choice anyway. Plus Ethan was dying.. It wasn’t an obvious thing but Unus could feel it when he entered this dream world. He could only assume Mark was in a similar situation. Shit.. he had to save these men! Even if Annus wasn’t gonna do it with him. 

“ **I.. yeah? Yeah.. Yeah! I do I gotta-** ”

“Wait what?”

“ **I’m gonna save you!** ” And with that Unus returned to the land of the living. He was gonna save this guy, whether Annus liked it or not.

  
  


Annus paced the living room floor trying to think, racking his brain for any memory of hurting Unus. Fuck, was it when he lost control of his emotions? Oh god it had to have been. Annus couldn’t come up with anything and he had a good memory. The only things he couldn’t remember were any of the times he lost his shit. He kinda blacks out when that happens and can never remember what he’s done. But Unus would remember... 

How could he make this up to him?? 

He could…  _ oh no  _ he could do what Unus was going to do. He could prove that he believed in Unus’ ideas and that he didn’t think of him as weak. He could willingly leave this vessel in an attempt to bring Mark back.

Would he stoop that low for Unus?

Oh who is he kidding  _ of course _ he would. He would do anything for Unus! 

This was a bad idea… but Annus was a fool so..

Annus laid down on the couch and crossed his arms across his chest as if he were in a coffin. He took a deep breath. This was so dumb. Fuck, he hopes this works. Soon Annus felt himself rise from his vessel. He floated off to the side. He hated this so much- fuck being in his true form. But this was for Unus.. and maybe this Mark guy but mainly Unus. 

Annus watched, waiting for any sign of movement from Mark. He waited.. And waited.. Nothing. He sighed and turned to go try and talk to Ethan about his failed experiment.

“What the fuck..?” 

Annus froze and turned around. Mark was attempting to sit up and rubbing his head, blinking rapidly as he tried to comprehend the world around him. His eyes locked on to the floating orb in front of him. He squinted. “I- Annus? Am I still dreaming?” 

“ _ I’m afraid you never were. Welcome back. _ ” Annus put on his formal and intimidating (?) facade, His voice was odd on this plane of existence. It didn’t ring out as it did in the dream world, it sounded more as if it were being spoken inside someone's head instead of outloud.

“Holy shit..” Mark mumbled in his dazed state.

Annus was going to continue an explanation of some sort when there was a crash heard from upstairs followed by a “FUCK!”

“Ethan!” Mark shot up, a wild look in his eyes.

“ _ Unus! _ ” Annus yelled at the same time.

They didn’t even so much as glance at each other before booking it up the stairs. When they found the source of the noise (the master bedroom) Mark began frantically trying to open it.

“ _ Open the door, dumbass! _ ” Annus shouted at him.

“What do you think I’m trying to do? It's locked.”

“ _ Well unlock it! _ ” Annus attempted a growl but it was weak.

Mark stopped to stare at the floating orb “Don’t you think I would have done that by now if I could?!”

Annus was shocked at how this human was treating him but his attention was brought back when Mark continued to speak. “Fuck this-” And began ramming himself into the door.

“ _ The hell are you doing!? _ ” 

“Trying to get inside! You wanna help?!” Mark snapped.

Still dumbfounded, Annus began to throw himself at the door. Eventually it gave and the two stumbled in ungracefully, even if Annus was hovering.

“Mark!” Who should have been Unus ran at Mark and enveloped him in a hug. It was easy to tell that they were crying. 

“Oh my god you’re okay!”

“I missed you so so so much.”

“I thought you were dead!”

“I love you. I love you, I love you. I’m never letting you go.” Were all things Annus could hear through their shaky sobs and mumbling. Cute. But more importantly-

“ _ What the fuck?!? _ ” Both he and Unus yelled at the same time, finally coming face to face with each other.

“ _ What were you thinking?! We had an agreement! _ ” Annus shouted.

“ _ We’ll you clearly weren’t on board so I took matters into my own hands! _ ” Unus shouted back. “ _ Why did you do it?! _ ”

“ _ I was trying to make it up to you! _ ” Annus admitted

“ _ What? _ ” 

“ _ I felt bad, okay? I don’t want you to think I think you’re weak or dumb and it was the best idea we had and I still don’t know what exactly I did to you but I had an idea and I’m so goddamn sorry and I wanted to make it up to you somehow! I hate when we fight. _ ” Annus spilled the thoughts that had been plaguing him all morning.

“ _ Oh Annus. _ ” Unus whispered. “ _ We really need to learn how to communicate. _ ” 

Annus chuckled. “ _ Yeah.. Look I know you won’t be able to forgive me for hurting you but can we please just talk about it? _ ” He practically begged.

“ _ You idiot, I forgave you for that when it happened- you didn’t mean it. It was a cheap shot to use it against you in an argument and I’m sorry. _ ”

“ _ But it still bothers you. I know it does. I want to talk through it. _ ” 

Unus’ voice adopted a happy tone. “ _ We can talk about it. _ ”

There was an awkward cough coming from where Mark and Ethan were standing. The two we’re still clinging to each other, afraid to let go.

“ _ Us four should talk..”  _ Unus trailed off upon addressing the humans.

“Yeah.” Mark whispered, a hint of fear in his voice. “Probably.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually really like how this came out and I hope you do too!  
> Also if you've ever commented on this work before I promise you that I've gushed about your comment to someone I know at one point or another. Comments really keep me going because I have a hard time comprehending that people actually like my writing?? And ideas??? Like, w h a t  
> So feedback is appreciated, thanks for reading!!


	6. The Calm Before The Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unus and Annus talk like civilized out-of-this-world beings and Mark and Ethan are tired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen. The story is about to get real funky so if you need clarification please ask because I'm not sure this chapter makes much sense.  
> This is not my best work, I got a huge headache in the middle of it lol so, sorry in advance I guess :/

Mark and Ethan were passed out on the couch, clinging to each other even in sleep, their dogs slumbering away on the floor below them. The boys were exhausted to say the least. Guess almost dying in a barren and dark dream void will do that to you. That and the information bestowed upon them by Unus and Annus. That might take a while to comprehend. Annus really wanted back in a vessel but he knew they were tired and missed each other so he allowed them this. Although, it did take some convincing from Unus who had put it in perspective. Annus couldn’t imagine being separated from Unus and imprisoned. Not a minute of his life had been spent without Unus being at least nearby, Annus wasn’t sure he could survive even an hour apart. So he let the humans sleep.

He and Unus had been hovering idly near each other, observing more than anything else. It wasn’t like they could do something to pass the time in this form. They  _ should  _ talk. But Annus was afraid to bring the subject up again.

“ _ So.. _ ” Unus spoke, shaking Annus from his thoughts.

“ _ So.. _ ” Annus responded.

“ _ What do we do when we want our vessels back? _ ” 

Oh good. This was a subject he could handle. “ _ Find new ones I guess.. _ ” It was a hesitant reply. Truth be told Annus liked these guys, he hadn’t quite figured out why though. And leaving them now seemed like a dumb idea, especially when they didn’t know why Mark and Ethan were still alive.

Unus made a hum of disagreement. “ _ I don’t want to. _ ”

“ _ Yeah me neither. _ ”

“ _ So.. we’re staying with them? _ ” 

“ _ For now. _ ”

The pair went quiet for a while, watching the humans sleep away, seemingly lost in thought.

“ _ I’m sorry. _ ” 

Annus startled. “ _ What? What for? _ ”

“ _ Everything. That fight earlier was so dumb and I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. _ ”

“ _ No no no, do not apologize for that, I needed to know. I want you to tell me these things. _ ” Unus just sighed in response. “ _ I’m the one who should be sorry- I mean I hurt you! And I was being an ass about your plan. _ ” 

Unus laughed. “You were worried.  _ I don’t blame you- my plans don’t usually work out. _ ”

“ _ But it did this time. I shouldn’t have doubted you. _ ”

A moment passed. Then, “ _ Do you remember the first time it happened? _ ” Annus swallowed thickly and Unus continued talking. “ _ It was so scary _ .” He muttered. “ _ It was like any other battle. It was supposed to be easy. But we were new. And dumb- although that last part may still be true.” _ Unus smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “ _ You had been pissy all day and then in the middle of this fight you yelled, and disappeared into a puff of smoke. I thought you were dead. _ ” The word was choked but he continued. “ _ And when the dust settled you weren’t you.. You had no emotion on your face and- _ ” Unus began to make crying noises. 

Annus remembered that day. He had been a dick to Unus all day and he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t want to be but he couldn’t stop himself. That fight, who were they fighting? The Acanti maybe? He couldn’t quite remember, he’d blocked out most of that fight from his memory. It was like, this flair or excruciating pain, it was blinding. Annus remembered yelling and then black. At first it was smoke and then it was a liquid. Almost like ink. It dripped off of him and onto the floor. He remembered the screams of their enemies, the smell of burnt flesh and- waking up to Unus shaking him violently. What had happened in between?

Unus sniffled. “ _ It burned me. It wasn’t that bad but it hurt a whole hell of a lot. It was my fault- I shouldn’t have approached you so soon, you didn’t know any better and you saw me as an enemy. It happened once or twice after that but I learned to keep my distance until you passed out. _ ” 

Annus was dumbfounded. He had hurt Unus. He had hurt Unus with the same stuff that melted the faces off of their enemies he- Unus had been in pain and Annus was to blame. 

“ _ Unus, oh god I’m so fucking sorry. I’m so so so sorry. I’ve never wanted to hurt you, not ever! I’m so sorry Unus… _ ” Annus trailed off, choking on his sobs.

Unus floated closer to him. “ _ No, hey, it’s okay Annus. I never blamed you for it, I still don’t. You don’t need to apologize. _ ”

“ _ Yes I do! I hurt you! That’s not okay.” _

“ _ You didn’t know any better. _ ” Unus reiterated. “ _ I know you would have never done it if you were in the right state of mind. _ ”

Annus heaved a shaky sigh. “ _ That doesn’t make it okay.” _

“ _ Annus you have to understand, this was out of your control. It’s okay, I promise you that. _ ” Unus’ voice was steady as he comforted his friend.

Now it was his turn to sniffle. “ _ What can I do to make it up to you? _ ”

“ _ You already have. _ ”

Before Annus could oppose that statement Mark and Ethan began to stir from their spot on the couch. “What time is it?” Ethan mumbled, reaching blindly for his phone. Mark remained firmly attached to Ethan, trying to burrow into his neck. Before the pair passed out they had sent brief messages to friends saying they were good, considering no one had heard from them in over a day. Then they promptly slept through the rest of the day. 

Ethan squinted at his phone once he found it. The living room was dark other than some light drifting in through the curtains. Unus had attempted to make it as peaceful as possible for the humans and Annus begrudgingly helped. Ethan slapped Mark to wake him up. “Hey, wake up we’re gonna miss the upload.” Mark just mumbled in response. 

Then Ethan’s eyes landed on the still staring Unus and Annus. He briefly looked shocked before simply yawning at them. “Mark, wake up. Unus and Annus are still here.”

Mark loosened his grip just enough for Ethan to squirm free. “Wha? Oh.” Mark began trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “I don’t wanna fucken deal with this.”

“ _ Yet it seems you have too. _ ” Annus finally addressed them after taking a moment to compose himself.

“ _ Why would we have left? _ ” Unus questioned.

“Why did you stay? Not like we’re of any use to you now.” Mark mumbled.

“ _ You’re of plenty use to us. You know we can still return to your bodies right _ ?”

Mark and Ethan froze at Unus’ comment. “I thought that was just the cult stuff..?” Ethan whispered, a tinge of fear in his voice.

Annus scoffed. “ _ No. They were weak. They didn’t know what they were messing with. We can come and go as we please. _ ”

“Then why’d you leave? Why not let us die in that hellish dreamscape? Why kill the cult guys but not us?” Mark muttered angrily, the previous day’s conversation coming back to him.

Unus and Annus didn’t respond. They didn’t have an answer. None of them spoke.

“Can we-” Ethan cleared his throat. “Can we upload our video? We kind of have jobs to do…”

“Why are you asking them? We don’t need to ask permission from a couple of demon fucks.” Mark snarled. He hadn’t been fond of Unus and Annus from the start. Understandable really, but you’d think he’d be less of an idiot. The dude needed to be put in his place.

“ _ Might I remind you that we could kill you in an instant? Or simply take away your free will and trap you within your own minds once more? _ ” Annus growled the threat.

“Oh yeah? Then do it!”

Both Ethan and Unus made remarks that were something along the lines of ‘ _ stop it _ ’ and ‘ _ Please don’t _ ’ but neither were heard by the two arguing. 

“ _ Fine! _ ” Annus yelled as he dove for Mark. He didn’t need to take this from a shitty human. He was a fucking powerful monster! Annus wouldn’t kill him. That would make Unus upset. But he could just take his vessel back. There was no harm in that. Maybe… Whatever!

Annus opened his eyes. He was back in Mark’s body. Damn did it feel good to not be some floating orb. Now he had opposable thumbs! And hands.. And a body…

“ _ Oh what the fuck? _ ” Unus muttered.

“Mark?” Ethan whispered, scared.

“What?”

“ _ Your eyes are white. Just white dude- that's not.. Normal. _ ”

Huh? Suddenly Annus was hit with a skull splitting headache. He slammed his eyes shut. 

“ Ha! I’m not trapped! Wait where am I?”  A voice jutted it. It didn’t belong to Ethan or Unus- no it was Mark’s that.. That didn’t make any sense.

The fuck was going on?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is about to get real, Venom/Symbiote all of a sudden cause I guess that's where I'm taking this.  
> It might be a while until that next update because I realized as I was writing this chapter that this story has no plot.. Like no plot, I have no idea what I'm doing. I didn't expect people to actually like it. The first chapter was straight out of my notebook, which is where all my oneshots live so it was supposed to be a one off thing and now I have to actually plan lol. So I'm sorry if it takes a minute for the next update  
> Thank you so much for all your comments, I really, really appreciate it.  
> Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!  
> Thanks for reading!


	7. Foolishness Will Get You Nowhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annus and Mark fight with each other while Unus and Ethan get along surprisingly well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is about real weird. If it's hard to follow feel free to ask me clarifying questions in the comments lol

“What the hell?” Annus mumbled, a confused look on his face. 

“ Annus? What the fuck is going on? ” Mark’s voice came through again, amplifying Annus’ confusion.

“I.. I don’t know I- where are you?” 

“ _ Annus the fuck are you talking about? _ ” Unus questioned, concern evident in his voice.

Annus searched the room as if he expected Mark to be there. But he shouldn’t- he shouldn’t be hearing Mark, Mark should be gone, Mark should be long dead but he wasn’t! Where the fuck was Mark?

“ That’s what I’m wondering buddy! This doesn’t make any sense! I shouldn’t even know you exist! ”

“Oh don’t be a prick! I’ll kill you when I find you!” Annus shouted. Ethan looked at him, fear in his eyes, a startled look on his face.

“ _ Who are you talking to? _ ”

“You don’t hear him?” 

“ They can’t hear me? ” Annus and Mark asked at the same time. 

“ _ Who!? _ ” Unus yelled, scared for his friends wellbeing.

“Fuckin.. Mark.” He mumbled, looking lost. What the fuck?

“Mark?” Ethan whispered.

“Yeah dipshit! Who else would I be talking about?” Annus found himself snapping at the scared man.

“ _ Hey! No need to be an ass to him. _ ”

“Well I’m sorry” Annus said, elongating the sorry. “I’m kind of losing my shit over here!”

“ Ethan! Ethan! ” Mark began to shout from somewhere in Annus’ mind. Their mind? Nevermind that.

“We’ve established that they can’t hear you dumbass!” Annus yelled at no one.

“ This is your fault! ”

“Oh yeah? How is it my fault?”

“ You tried to kill me! ”

“You were being an asshole! I’m still gonna kill you by the way.”

“ How are you gonna kill me?! You don’t even know where I am! ”

“Neither do you!”

" _ Hey! I don’t know what internal argument you're having but can you come back to the issue at hand and argue later? _ ” Unus finally interrupted them. He floated towards Annus, “ _ What the fuck is going on with you?! _ ”

Annus stumbled backwards, he felt light headed all of sudden. He rubbed at his forehead, the splitting headache returning. Mark’s voice had gone suspiciously silent. He faintly heard Unus and Ethan talking, calling for him maybe? They seemed distant.. Annus felt like he was drifting. Slowly the pounding in his head went away and he opened his eyes.

“Mark?” Ethan asked, a less scared and more confused tone in his voice.

“ _ No, dumbass _ ” Annus answered. Or tried to. What Ethan must have heard was Mark’s simple “Yeah.”

“ _ What? Nononono It’s me! I’m here! Oh my god.. _ ” Annus was helpless, watching through Mark’s eyes as he pulled Ethan into a hug.

“Now you know it feels!” Mark shouted aloud but it was aimed towards Annus. He didn’t seem to have any physical form, he was just a voice in a head.

“ _ How did you do this?! Let me have control! _ ” 

“No!”

Unus, who had been eerily quiet, spoke. “ _ Where’s Annus? _ ” He sounded too calm.

“In my head I guess! I don’t fucking know!” Mark yelled.

Unus’ tone became softer. “ _ Are you both okay? _ ”

“ _ I’m not! _ ” Annus yelled despite knowing he couldn’t be heard. This was suffocating. 

“We’ve established they can’t hear you!” Mark mocked his previous statement.

“ _ Oh shut up! I’m gonna kill you! _ ” 

“You can’t! You don’t have control.” Mark taunted him, the other two beings in the room stared at them.

Annus growled “ _ Oh just you watch. _ ” What Annus did next was hard to explain. He began fighting against an invisible force, something that prevented him from doing anything. Mark made a grunt of pain before slamming his eyes shut and Annus was in complete darkness. 

“Stop it you asshole!” Mark yelled and the invisible force became a harder foe. Was Mark fighting back? This must be how Mark had gotten control of his body. Annus continued to struggle. Somewhere far off he heard concerned voices. He felt both he and the odd force, or what he could only assume was Mark fighting back, weaken. Annus was tired. He still didn’t know what was going on, all he knew was that this sucked and he was tired. He missed Unus. He heard something mumble ‘Ethan’ but he was too tired to figure out what. Sleep sounded real nice right now..

“ _ Are they okay? _ ” Unus questioned, hovering over Mark/Annus. After Annus was hit with the second headache his eyes had returned to Mark’s normal colored eyes. It seemed they were sharing the body? Although it wasn’t really sharing considering they had seemingly fought over it until simply passing out. It was weird. Ethan was currently checking their pulse. Unus would do it himself but- no vessel.

“Yeah.. at least Mark is. Or.. or his body is- I really don’t know. Do you guys even have pulses?!” Ethan grew frantic.

“ _ I uh, no? We don’t really have bodies. _ ”

“I mean like, when you had control over our bodies. Was there a pulse? Oh god what if Mark’s dead? All we know is that his body is functioning, what if he’s not?!”

Ethan’s worries were rubbing off on Unus. “ _ We keep the vessels’ bodies working so we can use it. We prevent the body from decomposition but you two weren’t dead.. This is weird. _ ”

“You think?! All of this is fucking weird! I’m talking to a fucking orb demon creature thing I just..” Ethan trailed off as he began to hyperventilate. 

“ _ Woah! Okay calm down please, we’ll get into this later, right now we need to make sure our idiots are alive! _ ” Unus floated over to where Ethan had collapsed on the couch next to Mark/Annus. “ _ Just, open their eyes- lift their eyelids I.. I have a feeling about something. _ ”

Ethan gulped and nodded. Shakily he lifted the left eyelid. It was pure white. He lifted the right eyelid and it was Mark’s normal brown. They were both still in there. Both beings breathed a sigh of relief.

“How’d you know?”

“ _ When they started freaking before passing out every time they blinked their eyes would change between white and brown. I think they were fighting for control. _ ” 

The two sat in silence after that, staring at what seemed to be the now shared body of Mark Fishbach.

“Do you think..” Ethan cleared his throat. “Do you think if you were to try and use….me again the same thing would happen to us?”

Unus mulled this over for a moment. That seemed to be what happened to Mark and Annus only they had been extremely aggressive towards each other. It made sense for the same to happen to Ethan and Unus. “ _ Maybe.. _ ”

“What if.. We found out?”

Unus startled “ _ You’d willingly let me use you as a vessel without knowing what would happen to yourself? _ ”

Ethan rubbed at his neck. “I mean, it’s likely that I’ll be fine. Plus I get the feeling that we’re gonna need to work together to try and get those two to not be at each other's throats constantly. What’s better bonding than sharing a body?”

Unus would smile. He had to admire Ethan, the dude had no clue what was going on and was trusting a being he couldn’t really comprehend when said beings counterpart had tried to kill Mark. He’s probably doing this for Mark. How’s that saying go? Love makes you do stupid things? Was this love? All arrows pointed towards Mark and Ethan being together so Unus wouldn’t be surprised if it was. But Unus would do stupid things for Annus, he was doing stupid things for Annus right now! Did he love Annus? Unus audibly sighed. That's a thought for another day.

“ _ Alright. _ ”

Ethan seemed to brace himself for impact and that’s probably what he was doing. Unus took a deep breath and dove for Ethan. When he opened his eyes he was in control of Ethan for only a few seconds when the headache hit him like a freight train. It passed rather quickly.

“ Hello? ” It was Ethan’s voice. Coming from somewhere, within his own mind? Their mind?

“Ethan?” He asked the empty room.

“Unus? Is this..?” Ethan spoke again.

“Yeah.. I think so.” Unus mumbled a response.

“ This is so fucking weird. ” Ethan reiterated. 

“Yeah..” Unus heaved a sigh and glanced towards Mark’s body. “ They’re still breathing. ” Ethan provided. Could Ethan hear his thoughts?

Ethan made a somewhat nervous noise “ Yeah actually. ”

Unus hummed and started walking towards the bathroom. “You’re taking this surprisingly well.” 

“ So much shit has happened in the past few days I’m not sure I can be any more surprised ” 

Unus chuckled as he rounded the corner into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror he saw that his eyes were pure black. “Huh..”

“ Not to sound like a broken record but this is fucking weird ” 

“Yeah.” Unus wandered back into the living room. “So. How do we get you in control?”

“ I.. Do not know. ” They both sighed. 

“Maybe if I start to leave or weaken my control? Maybe you could take over?” Unus suggested.

“ I mean I guess? I don’t even know how we would do that but it’s worth a shot. ” He made a noncommittal noise.

“Okay uh let's do that then?” 

Unus stood in silence for a minute, attempting to let up on his hold on Ethan’s body. Soon enough he was hit with that oh-so fun headache- at least it meant something was happening. 

Unus opened his eyes. “Uh hey Unus? You there?” Ethan questioned. Oh. Unus wasn’t controlling the body anymore, Ethan was.

“ _ Yeah. This is wild. _ ” 

“So this has really never happened before?” 

“ _ Not once. _ ”

“What's so different about Mark and I?” Ethan yawned.

“ _ That's what we don’t know. _ ”

Ethan spent a moment staring at Mark’s body. “ _ They’re alright. _ ” Unus reminded Ethan who just cleared his throat. 

“I know you probably have bigger fish to fry but do you mind if I get some work done? We reeeally need to upload.”

“ _ Sure. We’ve got time. _ ” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I disappeared on y'all for a min there. I figured out where I wanted to take the plot pretty quickly once I actually got around to it. This chapter took far longer than I wanted it to and I'm still not all that satisfied with it but oh well I figured I should just bite the bullet. Anyway I have a question for you guys that will determine where I take this story- What do you think about the main enemy in this story being demons? It's kinda weird but I think I can really do something with it. Let me know! Comments are much appreciated and thank you for reading.


	8. Fools don't get along

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark and Annus have a conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too many thoughts on this one. I was only gonna write a little bit of it tonight but ended up writing the whole thing so, here ya go!

Annus looks at his surroundings in a daze. It’s the fucking dream realm again. Great. What the hell had happened? Maybe he should recount the events. He had that talk with Unus- _fuck_ he almost forgot about that, oh god he felt so bad about that. Unus had told him it was fine, that he was over it. But Annus knew better. Unus may have forgiven him but that didn’t change the fact that Annus hurt him. He was going to have to do something about that, anything he could come up with. Something stirred near him.

“What the fuck!?” Mark shot upwards, his shout breaking Annus from his thoughts. Ah yes, that’s what happened next. Mark and Ethan woke up, then Mark and Annus got in a fight and.. Son of a bitch.

“You goddamn orb, where are we?! What did you do?!” It was only then that Annus realized he was once again his true form. Why couldn’t this visit be like any other?

Regardless, he wasn’t in the mood to be yelled at. “ **You think this is my fault!?** ”

“Well it sure as shit isn’t mine!”

Annus scoffed. “ **I’m positive it’s on you dumbass.** ”

Mark crossed his arms. “The way I see it everything was fine until you tried to kill Ethan and I!”

“ **The way I see it everything was fine until we ended up with your bodies!** ” Mark didn’t respond. A wave of uncomfortable silence passed over them. They were tired and confused and angry and upset. Then Annus remembered something. Mark had called them demons. An insignificant thing to remember but it still pissed him off. He sighed. “ **You called us demons. We’re not demons. Demons are a whole other shitty supernatural being. That’s not us.** ” No better time to talk about stupid things than the present. 

Mark stared at him in confusion. “Demons are _real_?” 

“ **You humans really don’t know much about the universe huh?** ”

“Of course not! We’re humans. Not sure why you chose to come here in the first place.” Mark mumbled the last part.

“ **Unus and I don’t see much of a difference between species. Some planets are more advanced, others are not. All of them have bad people. That’s where we come in.** ”

Mark nodded as if that made perfect sense and then laughed. “Are your names really Unus and Annus?”

“ **Are you mocking us?** ” Annus growled.

“No, no” Mark put his hands up in defence. “It’s just a weird coincidence is all.”

“ **What do you mean?** ”

“Ethan and I started a Youtube channel called Unus Annus.” Mark shrugged.

“ **Why name a channel ‘One Year’?** ”

“We’re deleting it in one year. You know about Youtube?” Mark tilted his head in question.

“ **I’m familiar. Other planets have similar things.** ”

Mark hummed in response. A moment passed. “Why are you guys named Unus and Annus?”

“ **The first planet we ever visited was Earth. It seemed easy enough. A good place to start. We arrived in a not so inconspicuous way but no one seemed to notice. The people we tricked into helping us thought we were their gods. We didn’t really have a method yet so we did whatever we wanted.** ” Annus cleared his throat. “ **Caused a lot of havoc and up and left in a year. We later learned that they had begun calling us Unus Annus. One year. It stuck.** ” He sighed. Thinking about things that were so far in the past bothered him.

“You didn’t have names before?”

“ **No. We knew only of each other and never bothered to name ourselves.** ”

“So.. there's no one else like you and Unus out there? What, you just came into existence one day and never thought too hard about it?” Mark shook his head in something between disbelief and confusion.

“ **I suppose. I just remember existing one day, Unus by my side, exactly as I am now. It took a while to figure everything else out though. Trial and error. I’m sure if you asked Unus he’d tell you something similar.** ”

Mark just nodded and again, a wave of silence. Then, “This might sound weird but.. Not too long before the whole.. Cultists thing, both Ethan and I saw this weird thing.” Mark trailed off for a moment. It was midday and suddenly there was this flash of bright white light and then complete darkness for like, less than a second and only Ethan and I saw it. We asked around, we looked online, everyone thought we were insane.”

Oh holy shit. That’s fuckin weird. “ **That.. would have been us.** ” Mark seemed to relax at that but Annus tensed. “ **No one has ever been aware of that for as long as Unus and I have been visiting planets. You two are the first people to ever actually see it.** ”

“What the fuck?” Mark asked, but it was more of a question to himself.

This wasn’t good. It was one thing for Mark and Ethan to not have died but it was another for them to have sort of known about their existence before they met. Wait what if it meant..? Shit. Mark may be an asshole but he was still innocent in all this. Annus didn’t want to drag him and Ethan into it. He took a deep breath. “ **You and Ethan might be in danger.** ”

“What!?”

“ **I don’t know for certain! But some certain beings have it out for Unus and I- it’s a long story! But they keep an eye on us wherever we go and track whatever vessels we take and- fuck! Why didn’t I think of this?!** ”

“C’mon man finish your thought I need to know what's going on.”

Annus sucked in a breath. “ **I don’t have any answers. But if we wanna figure out why any of this is happening- you not dying, us being able to share your body, why you were able to see us before we even met- we’re gonna have to work together. Especially if you don’t wanna die.** ”

“What the fuck man!? That’s a lot to throw on a guy all at once!”

“ **We never chose you. Something else did. If you don’t want whatever that thing is to hurt you or your precious little Ethan, I suggest you choose to go along for the ride.** ” Annus decided to pull some intimidation in hopes Mark would get his head out of his ass. “ **Then again, I’m not sure you get much of a choice.** ”

Mark sighed miserably. “Fine. But no trying to kill me! And no trying to kill Ethan either.”

Annus didn’t respond to that. Why make a promise when he could have something to hold above Mark’s head instead? Instead, he chose to ask the one not-so-important question he had been wondering for a while now. “ **Is Ethan your partner?** ”

“Wha?! Pfft, uh no. No.. no he’s not.” Mark sputtered.

That was curious. “ **But all signs point to you two being in a relationship..** ” He trailed off.

“What?” Mark’s voice went up an octave. “ No.. He’s my best friend! We’re not dating.”

“ **Then why are you so.. Couple-ish? Also you said you loved each other.** ”

“We do not act couple-ish” Mark said while making quotation marks with his hands. “And of course we said we love each other. Friends are allowed to love each other platonically” Mark crossed his arms once more. 

“ **By all accounts that was not platonic. I’ve observed enough life to know how couples act. That's couple shit right there.** ” 

Mark scoffed. “I thought he was dead! Sue me for wanting to hug my best friend!” A blush had settled on his cheeks. Humans were odd, why dance around something so obvious? “And what about Unus huh? Do you love him?”

“ **By the definition of love, yes.** ” Annus answered, annoyed at the topic change.

“But are you _in_ love with him?”

“ **I.. Do not know.** ” He sighed. “ **I suppose I do not know what constitutes being** **_in_ ** **love with somebody.** ”

Mark smiled. “Don’t worry buddy, I’ll help you figure it out. We’re stuck together after all.”

Annus laughed dryly. “ **Sure. But don’t think I won’t tell Ethan that you love him in a not-so-friendship way.** ”

Mark furrowed his eyebrows together. “I do not! I love him a perfectly normal amount.”

“ **You’re stuttering and obvious blush state otherwise.** ”

Mark gaped at Annus before grumbling a “Fine.” In defeat. “But no being obvious! You’re not allowed to just outright tell him.”

“ **Why not?** ” Annus adopted a confused tone.

“Because.. Cause.. Because that's just not how things work! Okay?” Mark threw his arms up.

Annus laughed more genuinely this time before heaving a sigh. “ **We should probably wake up. See how Unus and Ethan are doing.** ”

“But we’re in agreement? No fighting for control or trying to kill each other?”

“ **You have a deal.** ” 

Mark smiled as if he’d won something major, and perhaps he did. “Good. How do we wake up?”

“ **Just.. wake up.** ” 

Mark scowled at Annus. “Asshole.”

“ **Dipshit.** ”

Damn was this whole agreement thing a bad idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone please buy them a get along shirt, they do not know how to behave.
> 
> As always comments are much appreciated and if you've ever commented on here I promise you that it absolutely made my day. Ultimate serotonin boost not gonna lie. Thanks for reading!


	9. Can we PLEASE get our shit together?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long conversation and Mark has a small panic attack. Author does not know how to write.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The longer I look at this the more I hate it so take it before I scrap it completely   
> Also sorry it took a while for this chapter, I legit opened the doc and stared at it for like 3 hours the other day without writing a word. Writers block is hitting hard lmao

“Ethan!” 

Said man spun around in the office chair to come face to face with Mark. From the vague information he and Unus had gathered it was definitely Mark talking considering that his eyes were their comforting brown. 

“Mark! How are you feeling?”

“I- Uh..” He rubbed the back of his neck as if he was embarrassed. “Annus wants to know where Unus is.”

Ethan smiled. “He’s in here with me.” Then he felt a nudge in the back of his mind. While Mark and Annus had been passed out on the couch he and Unus had practiced switching control- after Ethan finished uploading. They had somehow found a way to politely ask for control by making the slightest movement. It was hard to explain.

Ethan answered with a slight hum and took the backseat so Unus could prove to Annus that he was alive. They both knew Annus would probably lose his shit if they didn’t and a repeat of earlier was not what they needed.

“I’m here.” Unus said once he gained control. Mark muttered a ‘whatever’, presumably to Annus before his own eyes became that ominous white again and Annus started talking.

“Since when are you two sharing a mind?” “A lot can happen after your idiot friends kock out. We made sure you were alive, don't worry.”   
  
Annus glared. “Ha Ha. No seriously, you guys seem to have this down.”

Unus laughed, “We practiced dumbass. I take it you two had a talk?” 

“Yeah. We came to an agreement of sorts.” Then he aggressively whispered a ‘Shut up!’ Aimed at whatever snarky comment Mark made. Both Unus and Ethan laughed at that.

“So..” Annus starts. “What now?”

“I was talking to Ethan about it-” Annus scowls. Was he jealous? “We should go back to the cultists. See if we can find anything that might give us an explanation”

Annus nodded. “Do you think anyone’s found them yet?”

“I doubt it. How many cultists have you met that were family men? Who’s gonna come looking?” Unus shrug. Ethan would have shuddered. He knew what Unus and Annus had done. It made his skin crawl. He tried to rationalize it, he really did, he knew he wasn’t the one to actually do it but it was still his body! He felt a wave of remorse. It was Unus. Unus had apologized profusely. For such a terrifying being Unus was surprisingly human, still a murderer but he was nice to Ethan so that counted as something.

Suddenly Annus’ eyes became brown once more. “Wait wait wait. What happened to the cultists?”

Then a white orb left Mark’s body. “ _ We killed them _ .” Annus’ tone was far too blunt.

"What!?” Mark shouted, turning to look at Annus, an unreadable look on his face. 

Ethan quickly moved to take control. He had to calm down his friend. “It’s okay man! They were bad!”

“How do you know!? Unus is probably brainwashing you or some shit!”

Unus left Ethan’s body to defend himself. “ _ Hey wait a minute. Just because we didn’t immediately decide to kill each other doesn’t mean I’m lying to him. _ ”

“ _ C’mon mark- we talked about this! _ ” Annus jumped in.

“Just because I trust you doesn’t mean I trust him.” He pointed an accusing finger towards Unus. “hell, I don’t even trust you!”

“Mark you’re overreacting.” Ethan moved towards Mark to comfort him.

“I’m not! That’s the issue! I’m having a normal reaction and you’re all sorts of calm!” He looked like a scared animal being backed into a corner. It was as if the situation was hitting him for the first time. Luckily though, Mark didn’t jump when Ethan put his hand on his shoulder. Ethan pulled Mark into a hug and slowly the man began to calm down.

After a moment of complete silence from all parties Annus cleared his throat to regain their attention. It was nice of them to allow Mark a moment. Ethan assumed it was because panic attacks weren't something they were unfamiliar with, as Unus had put it. 

Mark pulled away and mumbled an apology. Ethan resorted to holding Mark’s hand as a reminder that he was there for him. It was something Mark had always done for him when he got like this, it kept him grounded.

“ _ Now, not to alarm anyone, but I came to an unfortunate conclusion. It’s likely that you two are in danger-. _ ”

“ _ Wait what? _ ” Unus interjected.

Annus seemed to turn to address him. “ _ They saw us arrive. The ones that have been tracking us must know about them as well. _ ” Unus seemed to understand.

"Wait- what do you mean we saw you arrive?” Ethan shook his head in confusion.

“Remember the light and then darkness that happened a couple months ago?” Mark supplied an answer.

Ethan blinked. “Oh shit I almost forgot about that. That was you?” He asked, turning to face the two orbs once more.

“ _ Yes. And if the conclusion I’m drawing is true then you two are in serious danger- we have to get moving. _ ” Unus seemed to grow frantic.

Mark squeezed Ethan’s hand. “Look, if our lives are on the line we deserve to know.” Ethan nodded in agreement.

“ _ Yes. You do. But we don’t have all the answers. _ ” Unus started. “ _ But please just trust us on this. Once we have a solid answer we’ll tell you everything. _ ” He concluded.

“What are we even talking about? What’s trying to hurt us?” Ethan couldn’t stop the slight tremble in his voice.

Annus sighed and seemed to glance at Unus for confirmation. The longer he interacted with them in this form the easier it was to pick up on how they emoted. When Unus gave some sort of a nod Annus turned back to them. “ _ Demons. _ ”

“What!?” Both Ethan and Mark shouted at the same time. “Why the hell would demons be trying to kill us?” Mark added.

Unus and Annus stared at them. “ _ That’s your reaction? You’re not questioning their existence? _ ”

Ethan shrugged. “I’m gonna have to say, you two are a whole lot stranger than demons.” Mark nodded. 

Now it was Unus’ turn to sigh. “ _ Well anyway, demons aren’t our biggest fans. _ ”

“Why not?”

“ _ We… kinda overrun hell when we show up somewhere. As much as they like torturing people for all of eternity they’re not too fond of the surprising amount of paperwork that comes with it. _ ” Annus explained.

Mark and Ethan stared at them, dumbfounded. “So you mean to tell me that because you two make their jobs harder they’re gonna try to murder us?” Mark asked.

“ _ They want us to fuck off. The only way they know to go about it is through violence. We’re long time enemies. _ ” Unus supplied.

“So because we saw you guys arrive on Earth they want us dead?” Ethan tilted his head to the side.

“ _ That's the thing... _ ” Annus mumbled. “ _ They always track whatever vessel we use so they can try and kill us and it’s never that big of a deal- but you two ended up living. That and seeing us arrive just doesn’t add up. We can’t be sure it’s all on the demons. So what better place to start then where we first met… _ ” He trailed off. “ _ Three days ago. _ ” God had it really been three days?

Mark dropped Ethan’s hand and crossed his arms before scoffing. “Fine. Let’s go back to where kidnappers/cultists planned to kill us.”

The orbs took his snark as a yes and focused on Ethan.

The past few days had been so fucking weird but if this was their best best than, what else would they do? “Fuck it.” He threw his arms up. “Let’s go.”

Unus and Annus cheered at their responses. “ _ Alright! We’ll tell you how to get there. _ ” Unus started heading for the door.

“Uh, you two should probably hitch a ride in our minds. Two floating and glowing orbs are gonna look pretty suspicious out there.” Ethan suggested.

“ _ Oh! Right. Sorry! _ ” Unus apologized before zipping back to the humans and returning to Ethan’s body, Mark following suit.

Mark sighed and turned towards Ethan. “Alright. Let’s do this I guess.”

Ethan laughed and left through the recording room door and towards the front door, Mark right behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy that was rough. All of these chapters have been mostly dialogue, is that okay with you guys?  
> Thanks for all your support everyone! I appreciate you all so very much!  
> Comments are much appreciated and thanks for reading!


	10. The One Where Mark Summons A Demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys go to check out what the hell went down with the cultists and Mark summons a demon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I am SO sorry for having not posted in forever I-  
> I knew this chapter was gonna be a bitch to write and I had no creative ideas so I "took a few days off" but then that went on for a while and when I was finally like "maybe I should update my fic" my laptop stopped working so I procrastinated fixing that and acted like I couldn't update it without my laptop (A lie because I have a fuckin pc I just prefer my laptop) and anyway I'm sorry.  
> This chapter is a wild ride that I spent maybe 3 hours on without stopping?? Idk what happened but i use the same phrase like 3 times and it gets kinda wonky but other than that- I'd say it's pretty good! I actually don't hate it too much? Wild.  
> Anyway I'll shut up- enjoy!

“ _Turn left here._ ” Unus instructed from within Ethan’s mind. It had been a relatively quiet car ride besides Mark muttering to himself (Annus) here and there. No music, no radio, just two guys and their out-of-this-world orb buddies. Ethan hears Unus laugh from somewhere inside his head and smiles to himself. 

Despite having only been dealing with this sharing a body thing for less than a day Ethan found he adjusted to it quite well. It was probably because his mind was already always running a hundred miles a minute and Unus just blended into the background like he had always been there. Unus being in control was a whole other story. It was weird, not being in control of his own body, it was like he was there but he wasn’t.. A hard thing to explain to say the least. 

“ _Go right and then you’ll come across a dirt path that goes into the woods, follow that._ ” Damn, how had Unus remembered this? Wouldn’t it have been pitch black out when he and Annus left this place?

“ _Perks of being supernatural._ ” That was all the explanation Ethan needed. Fuck trying to learn about these guys, it would probably override his brain. Somewhere in the distance Unus agreed.

Ethan pulled onto the dirt road Unus mentioned. Driving into the middle of the woods. This was definitely how every horror movie started. Ethan would bet money on the cultists place being a cabin. He honestly didn’t remember anything past being grabbed by intruders and waking up on a table. They must have knocked him out. Or maybe Ethan just blacked out instead. Wouldn’t be surprising.

They followed the path for about five minutes before it opened up into a clearing and not too far away was- a cabin. Fucking called it. “ _You can park off to the side._ ” Unus stated and Ethan did just that.

“We’re here.” Ethan announced with mock excitement, his hands still on the wheel. Was he ready to see this place?

“Hooray.” Mark mumbled. “You okay man?” Mark’s tone softened when he turned to face Ethan who, judging by Mark’s question, did not look okay.

“Not really, no.”

“What’s up?”

“I just feel like going in there is really gonna solidify that all of this is actually happening. That it’s not all some fucked up dream. I don’t know if I can handle that.” Ethan answered truthfully. He really wasn’t taking this as well as he thought he was.

“What happened to being so nonchalant about it?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. Shock probably wore off.” He huffed a humorless laugh.

Mark put an arm on his shoulder. “It’s okay man. I get it. This is wild and frankly I’m having a hard time keeping up but hey- at least we’re in this together.”

Ethan took a deep breath and smiled at Mark. “Yeah.. yeah okay. Let’s do this.” Then they got out of the car.

For a cabin in the woods it was really nice. More a small chalet than anything else. Where the hell did cultists get money anyway? it’s not like people pay to get kidnapped. “ _Actually.._ ” Unus started. No way- no fucking way. “ _I’m just messing with you. They’re usually just normal people with normal jobs. The only difference being that instead of using their money for something normal they fund their seances._ ” And that was enough explanation for Ethan.

The door was ajar and Mark pushed it open with caution. They were both tense, like they were expecting someone to pop out and kill them. “After you.” Mark gestured with a forced smile.

“Oh gee thanks.” Ethan rolled his eyes and entered with Mark right behind him and - holy shit.

Beyond the small entrance way was a large living space, very open, sky lights, and every square inch of it was covered in blood and gore. Both Ethan and Mark gagged. The smell was awful, and the scene was nightmarish. The room’s walls were lined with bookshelves, most of which were full to the brim and coated in blood. An elaborate light fixture hanging from the ceiling had entrails hanging from it. Corpses lay strewn about haphazardly, the majority of them missing limbs, a look of horror frozen on their faces. The loud buzz of flies could be heard, seeing as most of the bodies were covered in the insect it was not all that surprising. In the very center of the room was a large pentagram drawn on the floor and behind was a long wooden table. Various candles littered the room.

“Jesus fuck!” Mark shouted as Ethan looked on in awe and terror of the carnage before them.

Suddenly Unus and Annus left their bodies and stood (floated?) before the room as if they were introducing it.

“ _Like our handiwork?_ ” Unus asked, a cockiness in his voice. “ _The large intestine hanging up there was my work._ ”

“ _As was most of this. The goal was to kill them, not absolutely decimate them._ ” Annus added. The two were not phased by the situation at all. Unus and Annus really were capable of some shit.

“ _Oh please, I wasn’t the one that ripped someone's heart out. Which by the way, what a lazy move. You gotta get creative with it sometimes.”_

“What the fuck?” Ethan whispered and that was enough to stop them before they bickered for three more hours.

“ _Sorry._ ” Annus offered and then continued. “ _Anyway, we need to look around, find whatever book they were using the other night. You guys can look around but just.. Be careful._ ” Then they both looked towards the pentagram and table and started searching.

‘Look around’ Like Ethan was gonna do anything other than stand in the doorway and try not to vomit- this was fucking _foul_. He turned to look at Mark and found that the dumbass had already wandered away, barely avoiding the corpses on the ground. Something must have caught his attention because all of a sudden he was calling Ethan over.

Ethan glanced at Unus and Annus, they were looking at a book that could have been the fucking necronomicon and whispering to each other. Then he looked back to Mark who was holding a similarly ominous looking book and waving Ethan over like the room wasn’t covered in blood and this wasn’t the weirdest situation they’d ever been. 

Oh fuck it. That had been Ethan’s mentality for a while now, and he ever so carefully tiptoed around dead bodies to reach Mark.

“Check it out, it’s a demon summoning book.” Mark explained as he turned the book so Ethan could see the page he was on. It was a crudely drawn demon-looking creature next to some latin words and above, the word Abaddon. A name, if Ethan had to guess. 

“Woah.”

“Woah is right! Do you think this is what the demon really looks like?” Mark sounded genuinely curious. 

“I dunno man, maybe? Who knows?” Ethan shrugged.

Mark looked at the book in his hands for a moment before looking back up at Ethan. “Do you think I could take a demon?”

“Like in a fight?”

“Yeah in a fight!”

Ethan laughed. “No way. You may be strong but you’re not demon level strong.”

Then Mark got a look in his eyes that Ethan absolutely hated. He just got a terrible idea oh no..

“Wanna bet?” Mark smirked.

“No I really do not!” Ethan stuttered out.

“Oh c’mon Eth-” Mark started but Ethan cut him off.

“Nope! Nuh-uh! You are NOT summoning a demon.” Ethan tried to take the book from Mark but he held it just out of reach. The man wasn’t even that much taller than him, this was bullshit.

“It’s probably not even real, like Unus and Annus said, cultists didn’t know what they were dealing with- this book is probably bullshit anyway.” Mark looked over the book again and then back at Ethan, he had that fucking look in his eyes again.

Ethan grew panicked, Mark could be a bit of a himbo at times. “Mark this isn’t the same as googling ‘how to summon a demon’! This is real shit!” But Mark wasn’t listening, he had opened the book back to the Abaddon page and was walking away from Ethan while reciting the words on the pages in a whisper.

“Mark!” Ethan whined. “You don’t know what you’re doing!” But Mark continued on anyways. “Seriously! Stop!” But Mark kept going, even as Ethan chased him down begging him to stop. 

Suddenly there was a dull noise and the room filled with a black smoke. 

“ _What did you guys do!?_ ” Annus barked at them. Mark dropped the book with a deafening thud and the pair froze where they stood.

“ **_WHO DARE SUMMON ABADDON!?_ **” A booming voice demanded and everyone's attention was on the figure standing in the pentagram. A beast-like being stood, glaring at them. It stood tall. Too tall to be anything remotely human, It’s skin was a crimson red and seemed leather in texture and it’s whip of a tail moved about as if it had free will. It had long and curling horns that were black in color. Above the waist it looked vaguely humanoid, but it’s legs were that of a goats. It had a large mouth curled up into a smile that showed of it’s rows of dozens of razor sharp teeth. It’s hands were like claws and it’s eyes were pitch black. Finally, its bat-like wings spread out to a wingspan that was larger than any bird they had ever seen.

Oh yeah. That’s a demon.

Quickly, Unus and Annus rushed into Mark and Ethan’s bodys and Ethan quickly lost all control. Not that he was complaining though, because he’s pretty sure he would have passed out otherwise. Speaking of- he was definitely still passing out. Fine by him. This is not his problem to deal with.

  
  
“ **_Ah. It is just you._ **” It smiled wickedly at Unus and Annus. 

“What do you want Abaddon?” Annus growled. 

“ **_For your information I was summoned. But I do have a message for you two._ **” 

“Which is?” Unus muttered.

“ **_I would tell you but since you’re both so eager to fight- that can wait._ **” Abaddon cracked his knuckles. 

“Remind me,” Annus started. “Out of the all the times we fought how many times have we banished you back to hell?” He stood up straight.

Abaddon just glared at them. “I think that was everytime Annus.” Unus stood up as well, a smirk evident on his face.

“Ah yes.” Annus nodded.

Abaddon growled at them. “ **_Gotta take every chance I get to take you out._ **” He snapped, taking a fighting stance.

There was a flash of obscuring black and white and suddenly Unus and Annus were wearing black and white suits, not unlike Ethan and Mark’s suits, same hand positions and all. 

“Unus Annus.” The pair said at the same time and it was on.

BOOM! A loud clap of what could be mistaken as thunder and a flash of blinding light that confused the demon. Annus appeared behind him and sent a powerful blast of the same harsh light from his hands at Abaddon who was knocked backwards before grunting in pain. Suddenly Unus jumped from seemingly out of nowhere onto the demon’s back and began stabbing it with an ornate dagger that he seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Black blood spewed from the demon's neck but it wasn’t long before Unus was flung across the room by two claws.

Angered by the treatment of his friend, Annus charged Abbadon before pulling back and blocking punch after punch from the demon until it’s blows became sloppy. Unus appeared underfoot, throwing off the demon who spun in circles trying to locate him, slapping Annus away in a truly accidental moment. 

Then Unus pulled back, hovering momentarily to charge a blast, with an angry yell he shot what could only be described as pure darkness from his hands that cut the demon deep. Annus followed by reaching forward with some unmoveable force that lifted the pissed off demon and slammed him into the floor. 

The fight went on not much longer with the three of them going blow for blow. Annus being the unmovable object that he is and Unus being far too agile than one should be. Soon enough Abaddon was nearing exhaustion. While the demon was down for the moment Unus and Annus took a few steps back and nodded at each other. They used that same power that came off as light and darkness except this time they merged them, creating a haunting black and white spiral in the air. With a yell from the two of them the spiral was pushed forward and into the demon. Abaddon fell to the floor, he was down for the count.

Unus and Annus approached him cautiously. Annus grabbed Abaddon by the horn and raised his head. “What was your message for us again?”

Abaddon smirked and laughed a maniacal laugh before coughing up some blood and spitting it on the ground. With a wheeze he spoke, “ ** _Good ‘ol Lucifer is fed up with you. We’d been planning on causing a bit of an apocalypse up here on Earth but.. Now that you two are here? Oh all Hell’s gonna break loose. Literally._** ” Annus pulled a look and dropped Abaddon’s head. Slowly Abaddon sat up and laughed. “ ** _I can smell the fear on ya little guy. You know you can always leave right? Let this planet burn? Oh but you’re too attached. Care too much to let a shitty little species die. You should take a page out my book- never get attached._** ”

Unus scoffed. “We’re not cruel like you. We’d never stoop to your fuckin level. We have morals.” 

“ **_Oh but morals will do you in.._ ** ” He trailed off and muttered “ **_Hopefully._ **” Unus prepared to banish the demon, raising his hands as an orange fire began to lick at Abaddon.

“Banish him.” Annus commanded and Unus did just that. He slammed his arms down and watched as Abaddon burned, his screams full of anguish. He wouldn’t die. Demons can’t die. But it was a painful exit from the overworld and a shameful entrance to the underworld.

Annus turned to Unus, he tried to remain stoic but his anxiousness gave him away. Unus couldn’t have been much better. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Yeah.” Unus responded breathlessly. With that they turned to leave but before they left Unus stopped and ran back to the book he and Annus had abandoned earlier. He scooped it up and jogged back to Annus. “Don’t wanna forget this.”

Annus nodded. “Good idea. We’ve got a lot to fill Ethan and Mark in on when they wake up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy.  
> I can't write action scenes If you couldn't already tell. My writing capabilities only exist for fluffy stuff and essays I don't know why I decided to make something with a lot of action I just- no brain in here. Also sorry if my descriptions are shit lol  
> Anyway full warning, if I disappear again it's because school starts in a little over a week and it's all online and no one has any clue whats going on so I might have to focus on that for a bit.  
> Side note, would you guys care if I changes the name and description of the fic? I have some better ideas than whatever I originally came up with at like 1am lmao  
> Anyway comments and kudos much appreciated!  
> Thanks for reading!!!


	11. Do you Know Satan's number?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang tries to figure out where to go from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're gonna pretend that I didn't go ahead and start a whole ass other fic when I said I would I be taking a break- sorry this took so long folks! I opened the google doc like ten times and stared at it without writing anything down but the fact that Unus Annus had less than 100 days left made me existential so here we are!  
> Also, going into this I did not realize how much world building I would have to do and apparently I'm not good at that but whatever we're pushing forward.

Ethan blinked his eyes open. Mark was to his left, knees pulled up to his chest, a blank look on his face. On the other side of his room Unus and Annus seemed to be staring at them. They weren’t speaking but there was an anxious air about them. Slowly Ethan sat up. What had happened? 

Distantly Ethan remembered a book and Mark doing something dumb and- _Abaddon_. That’s right, Mark summoned a demon. How had that gone? Also why was it dead silent?

Ethan grew anxious, something was up. “What’s wrong?” And like that all eyes were on him.

Mark only glanced at him before returning to staring at nothing. Unus floated over to him, “ _What do you remember?_ ” 

Ethan chewed on his lip. “Everything up to Mark summoning the demon. Did I pass out?”

“ _Yeah.._ ” Unus trailed off.

“What happened?”

“ _Well we fought the demon and then we learned a not so fun bit of information.._ ” Unus was skittering around something.

Annus interrupted. “ _Basically there's about to be an apocalypse._ ” Unus shot him a look.

“What!?” Ethan shouted. “An apocalypse? What the fuck- why!?”

“ _Apparently it had been on satan’s agenda for a while but now that we’re here he wants to unleash it now and have it be bigger than ever._ ” Annus explained.

“You have got to be shitting me..” Ethan leaned back on the couch and covered his eyes with his hands, “Jesus christ.”

“ _We do have good news though!_ ” Unus spoke up once more. When no one said anything he continued, “ _You know how you guys were trapped in that dream realm?_ ”

Ethan nodded, Mark spoke for the first time, “Honestly that seems like the least of our problems now.”

“ _Anyway, it turns out that the ritual the cultists used is what did it!_ ” Unus was far too cheerful than what felt necessary. “ _Again, those fuckers really don’t know what they’re dealing with._ ” Annus chimed in.

“That still doesn’t explain why we knew you existed before meeting you.” Ethan added. 

Unus hummed an acknowledgement but said nothing else. “So where do we go from here?” No one spoke. For a while. “Tell me we have a plan.” Still no one spoke. “You mean to tell me we have no plan!? The apocalypse is gonna happen, we have to do something to stop it!” Ethan found himself yelling, Unus seemed sheepish.

“I _mean.._ ” Annus started, “ _We could try to contact Satan..?_ ” 

Mark scoffed. “Contact Satan?”

Unus perked up, “ _Yeah actually! That’s not a bad idea.._ ”

“And what? Ask him _not_ to trigger the apocalypse? Oh please Mr.Satan! Don’t unleash the end of humanity!” Mark shouted, slipping into a mocking voice.

“ _Yeah?_ ” Unus half answered half asked.

Ethan spoke before Mark had the chance to say something else that was snarky. “Are you sure he’d be happy to hear from you two?” 

“ _Eh, maybe not.. But if we’re desperate enough he might actually listen._ ” Annus answered’

“Do you even know how to contact Satan?” Mark questioned.

“ _Not exactly? But we can figure it out!_ ” Unus said, again far too upbeat for the situation.

Mark threw his arms up. “Do we even know how much time we have?! How long is it gonna take to find Satan’s fucking phone number?!” Unus seemed to flinch.   
Annus moved towards Mark from his spot in the back of the room. “ _We don’t exactly know- okay? It just means we have to get started sooner rather than later._ ” Just then the doorbell rang, catching everyone’s attention.

“Fuck!” Mark whisper-shouted. 

“ _What?!”_ Unus yelped.

“We’re supposed to film today! Shit, where’s my phone?” He shouted as he scrambled for his phone. Then the situation clicked for Ethan. That was probably Amy and Evan deciding to stick with the original plan when Mark and Ethan wouldn’t pick up their phone.

“ _Well tell them to leave!_ ” Annus joined in on the whisper-shouting.

“We can’t!” Mark hissed. “We have to film or the schedule will be fucked and we won’t have enough videos to post.”

Annus scoffed. “ _Isn’t preventing the apocalypse just a little bit more important!?_ ”

Ethan jumped in, “Hate to be the one to say it but the apocalypse is gonna have to wait- It’ll just be today and tonight we can do some research. In the meantime, you guys are gonna have to hitch a ride in our bodies and stay hidden.” Ethan gestured to call Unus over. Quick as ever Unus floated right on over.  
  
“ _What- Unus! This can’t wait!_ ” 

“ _It’s gonna have to-! We don’t exactly want to alert all of humanity that demons are going to be climbing up from the underworld with a thirst for blood!_ ” Ethan cringed. “ _This is our best bet at keeping things normal!_ ”   
  
Annus sputtered out a bunch of nonsense and sighed in defeat. “ _Fuckin- fine! I guess.._ ” With that they both disappeared into his and Mark’s bodies. Ethan immediately recognized Unus’ presence in the back of his mind and shuttered- it was still a weird thing to get used to.

Mark shouted ‘Shut up!’ presumably to Annus and jogged over to the door, opening it and being greeted by exactly what they expected- Amy and Evan.

Amy pushed past Mark and into the house, Evan behind her. “Hey why haven’t you been picking up your phone-” Amy paused when she saw Ethan on the couch. “Oh..? Fun night, huh?” She gave Mark a look and he screwed up his face in confusion.

“Huh? What-” Then something clicked and his face went bright red. “Oh! No no no, nothing like that!” Ethan tilted his head, not understanding.

“Sure..” Amy added going to set some camera equipment down and the conversation carried on. Ethan was about to ask what she was talking about when Unus cut in.

“ _She thinks you and Mark fucked._ ”   
Now it was Ethan’s turn to turn bright red. He dragged a hand across his face, “Jesus christ..” Unus laughed from somewhere in his mind. This had already been a hell of day, hopefully they could just do something simple for once.

Much to Ethan’s chagrin they filmed some of the weirdest shit they’ve filmed in a while. Drinking piss and drawing Mark nude was never something he had on his bucket list but here they were. Still, easier than dealing with the whole ‘other worldly entity vs. demons that are gonna end humanity’ situation he’d somehow got himself stuck in. Unus Annus (the channel) was a nice distraction from Unus and Annus (the beings)- or so he thought it would be. Kinda hard to focus on something else when Unus himself is asking questions and talking or, worst of all, teasing Ethan all throughout the nude painting video. Apparently Unus could see into Ethan’s memories and past thoughts (that or Ethan just wasn’t very subtle) because he wouldn’t shut up about Ethan’s teensy little crush on his best friend. ‘ _Not teensy, huge._ ’ Unus would remind him. Ethan wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

One excruciating day of filming later and Ethan and Mark collapsed onto Mark’s couch, grateful for the moment of silence they had before it was so rudely interrupted by the entities immediately making an appearance. 

“ _Need I remind you that we do have research to do?_ ” Annus spoke and Mark put his face in his hands. 

“Yeah..” Ethan yawned. “Yeah, yeah okay. Where do we start?” 

Unus seemed to ponder this for a moment before speaking. “ _The internet of course. Nothing a little deep web search can’t find._ ”

“Deep web not dark web right?” Mark asked.

“ _Who knows?_ ” Annus hummed and the group gathered around Mark’s laptop to get searching. Mark hesitated once on the Google screen. “ _What?_ ” Annus asked.

“I just now realized that I have no idea where to start.”

Annus made an angry noise. “I think I do, let me take control.” And for the first time Mark relinquished control without any argument. ‘Progress.’ Ethan decided. He himself didn’t mind when Unus did the same.

Rather than take a nap like he had been planning on doing Ethan decided he might just try to take a look at Unus’ memories. They seemed to be _right_ there but just out of reach. But he did feel a bit of a warning to stop from Unus- so he did. No need to piss him off, especially if the dude rarely got pissed off in the first place. Ethan couldn’t help but wonder what Unus was like when he got pissed off. Maybe that contributed to why he couldn’t see his memories? Oh well. Ethan’s not one to push.

He found that he hadn't been focusing on Unus and Annus’ conversation, or whatever they were looking up on the computer. Whatever. As weird as it was to say he kinda trusted the pair. You kinda had to if you were to share a body. The thing he did focus on however, was a specific emotion Unus was feeling. It felt like Ethan himself was feeling it but he knew it wasn’t his. 

It was a warmth. A joyous feeling. Love maybe. Directed towards Annus…

That _fucker_! He had spent all day teasing Ethan about his stupid crush when he had one of his own!

Or maybe.. Unus didn’t know it was a crush? That was possible. He wasn’t human after all. Maybe different feelings were something the pair had developed as they spent more time on mortal realms or something. Because this was too obvious of a crush to just.. Not notice. If Unus heard any of Ethan’s thoughts about this he didn’t give any indication. He was probably too focused on the task at hand. Speaking of- how long had they been at it now? How was their progress? Maybe Ethan should have been paying more attention..

As if on cue (and maybe he was) Unus left Ethan’s body and floated in front of him. Ethan turned to his left and Annus had done the same. 

“ _We have great news!_ ” Unus announced.

“Which is?” Mark egged him on. 

“ _We know how to contact Satan!_ ” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a wild ride that was- huh?  
> Once again I've written myself into a corner so bare with me as updates will continue to be slow. I am dealing with school now but it's actually not as agressive as I thought it would be? I have Wednesday off so we'll see if I make any progress on this then.
> 
> Although I'll probably work on my other fic because it's easier lmao  
> Not to plug my other stuff but if you like Buzzfeed Unsolved/ Watcher, Shyan, and hurt/comfort than you will love my other fic! Go check it out but only if you wanna lol
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos appreciated! I hope you enjoyed :)


	12. That Motherfucker Satan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chit chat with the Devil and some mild gay panic on Mark's part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Remember this fic? Well I finally updated it. Hope you enjoy!

Contacting Satan, it turns out, is a lot harder than they were anticipating. Or at least that’s what Mark thinks. To Unus and Annus the idea of a blood sacrifice was nothing, something to be shrugged off. To Mark and Ethan it was a much bigger deal.

“What, do you want us to slaughter a goat?” Mark crossed his arms. Unus seemed to give him a disgusted look.

“ _ No, dipshit, you’ll just need to cut yourself, it’s fine don’t be a bitch about it. _ ” Annus snapped. 

“I do not want to do that.” Ethan says matter of factly and Mark nods in agreement. 

_ “Would you rather your entire society become a fiery hellscape full of death and despair?” _ Annus spat. When neither of them respond Annus speaks again.  _ “That’s what I thought. Now go grab a knife and like, a bowl or something.” _

Mark gets up and shuffles into the kitchen despite himself. He can’t quite argue with Annus on this and that irks him. He hates this. He hates this so fucking much. 

“So what all goes into contacting Satan?” He hears Ethan ask behind him.

_ “Well if the info we found is anything to go by we’re gonna need to use your blood to draw a pentagram, say a few magic words and hopefully he’ll pick up.”  _ Unus supplies.

“So you guys are eon old beings and don’t know how to contact the devil?” He says, returning with a kitchen knife and a bowl and setting it on the coffee table. He catches Ethan eyeing the knife uneasily out of the corner of his eye and can’t help but feel bad. 

Annus seems to glare at him.  _ “What’s that supposed to mean?” _

“Well you know, you’d think this is something you’d know at this point and not have to fucking google.”

_ “We’re not friends with the fucker!”  _ Annus all but shouts.  _ “We’ve never wanted anything to do with him.” _

“Yeah well It’s a bit late for that now, huh?” Mark crosses his arms in defiance and is met with what he can only assume is a cold stare. Unus audibly sighs.

_ “If you two could get along for five minutes that'd be great.”  _

In an attempt to get them back on topic, Ethan jumps in. “Okay so what do we do?”

Annus clears his throat.  _ “Right. Well, you’ll need to cut yourself. Then we should collect it in and use it to draw a pentagram on the floor. It’s pretty straightforward actually.” _

Ethan runs a hand over his face. “Jesus christ.”

“We both need to do it?” He asks.

_ “Not necessarily. Just one of you might give enough blood, the pentagram doesn’t need to be that big.”  _ Unus clarifies.

“Sure. Alright.” He takes a breath. This is fine. “I can uh, I can do it.”

“Mark no-” Ethan tries to protest but he cuts him off.

“No, really it’s alright Eth.” He says reassuringly, placing a hand on Ethan’s shoulder. He shouldn’t have to do this. It’s clear he doesn’t want to. Not to say Mark  _ does  _ want to do this- he is  _ not  _ a masochist- but he would take a bullet for Ethan, this is nothing. If he just keeps telling himself that it’ll be fine then it will. 

“Are you sure?” 

“A hundred percent.” He says with a smile and Ethan begrudgingly relents.

_ “Stop being a baby, it’s just a little blood.” _

_ “Shut up Annus. _ ” Unus mumbles under his breath and Mark can’t help but feel a little satisfied at that. 

Carefully, and relatively anxiously, he grabs the knife and holds his hand over the bowl. Before he can cut his own hand Unus stops him.  _ “Wait! Don't cut your hand! Movies lied to you- that’s one of the worst places you could pick for something like this.”  _

“You watch movies?” Ethan asks, innocently enough.

_ “We have a lot of free time.”  _ Annus answers simply and they all go back to watching Mark. 

“So, should I cut my arm or..?”

_ “Forearm. Closer to where your arm bends.”  _

With Annus’ advice in mind he holds his arm over the bowl and readjusts the knife’s placement. God, he hopes this doesn’t hurt as bad as he thinks it will. 1.. 2.. 3..

“Motherfucker!” He hisses as he drags the knife’s blade across his arm. It hurts like hell but not as much as he had been expecting which is a nice surprise. Still hurts though. “Tell me when.” He says through gritted teeth as he watches the blood run from his arm and into the bowl.

_ “That’s good.”  _ Unus says and he attempts to cover the cut up before realizing he has nothing to stop the bleeding with.

He turns to Ethan. “Uh, can you get me like a washcloth or something?” Ethan practically jumps off of the couch and runs towards the bathroom to find one. He’s back not even thirty seconds later, cloth in hand.

“Here, let me help you.” He says, focused on Mark’s cut. He sits beside him once more and gestures for him to take his hand off the wound. He watches as Ethan covers it up with the washcloth and applies pressure. “Let me know if I’m hurting you, pressure will make the bleeding stop faster but..” He looks up at Mark and trails off. Ethan’s really fucking close to him right now. Close as in they’re breathing the same air and he’s looking into Ethan’s eyes and he’s completely forgotten about the situation at hand because all he can fucking think about is Ethan. 

Suddenly Annus coughs to get their attention and they both jump, startled back into real time. “Shit, uh sorry.” Ethan mutters, blatantly refusing to make eye contact as he bores holes into the cloth on his arm. 

“No you’re uh, you’re good.” 

_ “If you two are done with whatever the hell that was, go cover that up quick so we can get on with this.”  _ Unus says nonchalantly. 

His face is bright red and he knows it and now it’s his turn to jump off the couch and book it to go find something to wrap his arm with. He digs through his medicine cabinet for some gauze and gets to wrapping it up. He glances at the band aids but they’re too small. “That was nothing, that was nothing, that was nothing.” He repeats quietly as he haphazardly wraps his arm. He says it because it was nothing. Fucking nothing. That’s all it will ever be anyway. 

He takes a second to compose himself before returning to the living room. 

“Okay, now what?”

_ “We need to make a pentagram on the floor.” Annus says. _

“What, like with a paint brush?” 

_ “If you have one.”  _ Unus says and Mark sighs. 

“I think I know where one is.” Ethan runs out of the room and returns about a minute later with an actual paint brush. “I guess having weird video ideas comes in handy sometimes.” 

Mark cringes. “Let’s make sure we throw it out after this though.” Ethan nods. “So are we just gonna paint the fucking floor with blood?” 

_ “It washes off fast if we’re quick.”  _ Unus says.

“It better.” He mumbles. “Are you doing the honors?” He asks Ethan who’s still just standing there, paint brush in hand.

He shrugs. “It’s the least I could do.” 

_ “Let’s get on with it then.”  _ Annus says exasperatedly.

“Right.” Ethan mutters. He crouches down to the floor and with a shaky hand dips the paintbrush in his blood and begins to paint a pentagram on the floor. He finishes and steps back.

_ “Mind if we use your bodies for this next part?”  _ Unus asks almost sheepishly. He shares a look with Ethan before heaving another sigh.

“Why the fuck not?” And with that Mark is no longer in control of his own body. If he’ll ever get used to this he doesn’t know. But he is getting tired of it.  “Deal with it.” Annus mutters and if he could Mark would roll his eyes. 

“Ready?” Unus asks and Annus nods. They chant something in a language he can’t quite pinpoint and he sure as shit doesn’t understand a word of it. Suddenly a plume of black smoke comes from the pentagram. When it dissipates there’s projection coming from the pentagram. A picture of a hulking demon that looked like Abbadon on fucking steroids. He’s seated on a huge throne made from stone and he’s holding a metal staff. If Abbadon was scary this motherfucker was  _ terrifying _ . The demon, who Mark was sure was the devil at this point, grinned ear to ear showing rows and rows of sharp teeth.

**_“Ah, Unus and Annus, what a nice surprise. I heard you had a run in with Abbadon. He isn’t too happy about it and frankly neither am I. Tell me, did he give you my message?”_ **

“Loud and clear.” Annus said.

Statan hummed. **_“So I assume that’s why you’re calling?”_ **

Unus nodded grimly. “Why are you doing this?” 

**_“Triggering the apocalypse you mean? Well, take one look at this planet and tell me it isn’t full of selfish bastards. Tell me it isn’t full of practically useless monsters. You know this- I know this. Why is it that you two care so much?”_ **

“That would mean the end of millions of innocent lives. We can’t let you do that.” Annus growls.

**_“That’s my job.”_ ** Satan draws out the word, trying to get his point across.

“I don’t understand- why start an apocalypse in the first place?” Unus tries. “It just means more work for you.” 

“ **_Technically,”_ ** He starts.  **_“It means more work for the big guy upstairs. You see, I have a job to do and a requirement of that job is to cause chaos. Usually. But you see, this humanity? It needs to be extinguished. So much so in fact that I got a call from Saint Peter himself not so long ago saying something about how there was no saving Earth-”_ **

“That’s not true.” Annus interjected. “Heaven wouldn’t give up on an entire planet so easily.” 

**_“Oh but it is. There had been too many failed attempts at salvaging it. It’s just not worth it anymore. If you need proof you can go ask good ol’ Pete himself, I wouldn’t lie about something of this magnitude.”_ **

“Bullshit.” Unus hissed. “So what, you’re just gonna kill all of Earth because of a few shitty people? You realize that’s what we do, right? We kill the bad people?” 

**_“Yes, yes- but God doesn’t know that, now does he? Why he doesn’t even know you exist. And well what with me hating you so much- it all seemed to fall into place, don’t you think?”_ ** Satan asked with a smirk.

“You son of a bitch.” Annus spat 

**_“It’s what I do.”_ ** He said proudly.  **_“If that’s all you wanted to talk about..?”_ **

“No!” Unus shouted. “What do you want? What do you get from this? What would make you not go through with it?” He asked, desperate but angry.

**_“Nothing that I can think of. I’ll let you know if that changes.”_ ** He said with a fucking wink of all things. 

“We’ll stop you!” Annus shouted. “We’ll fucking find a way!” 

**_“Right. Good luck with that.”_ ** Then, before either Unus or Annus could get another word in the screen disappeared back into the bloody pentagram with another puff of black smoke and the smell of sulfur in the room.

Well shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's about 12 days left of Unus Annus and I sobbed over today's video. How are yall taking it?  
> I'm so fucking sorry I took so long to update this jesus christ, uh hope some of you are still out there lol  
> Anyway you can talk to me on Tumblr at Flame0515 if you want! Comments and kudos are much appreciated! They keep me going.

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder that I absolutely adore Mark and Ethan and mean no disrespect to them. I am well aware that they will never be together. This is purely a work of fiction, I just enjoy their dynamic. :)


End file.
